The relationship among sense of coherence, job burnout, and health status of hospital psychiatric nurses

Despite the strength of discourse and debate in relation to burnout and health status among mental healthcare professionals, there has been limited research in finding resources that protect against job burnout and maintain health. This study is based on a theoretical foundation that sense of coherence (SOC) is a construct which enhances one's ability to deal with stressful situations thus resulting in improved health. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether sense of coherence (SOC) is related to job burnout and health status among 91 psychiatric nurses working on 4units in a psychiatric hospital unit. Levels of SOC were assessed by Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ), job burnout was assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Services Survey (MBI-HHS), and health status was measured by Short Form Scale (SF-36). Pearson's correlations and mediational analyses were used to study the relationship among SOC, job burnout, and health status. T-tests and ANOVA methods were also utilized to find relationships between categories in the demographic information (age, gender, marital status, years of experience, and education) and SOC, job burnout, and health status. The findings showed no significant relationship between SOC, job burnout, and health status among the 91 psychiatric nurses. However, significant relationship was shown between some of the subscales of OLQ, MBI-HHS, and SF-36. The implications for social change include establishing strategies for training nurses to deal with stress, job burnout, and management of professional demands. These may in return eliminate or lower levels of job burnout, maintain health status among nurses, and help in the retention of and increase the recruitment of nurses into this caring profession.