A Survey Of Current Nursing Work Environment And Its Relationship With Job Burnout Among Level 3 General Hospitals In Zhejiang Province

ObjectivesThis study points out three objectives, according to a survey of the current nursing work environment and job burnout among Level 3 General hospitals in Zhejiang Province. First, to verify the reliability and validity of Nursing Work Environment Scale (NWE). Second, to evaluate nurses'perceptions of current nursing work environment. Thirdly, to explore the relationship between nursing work environment and job burnout. It also provides help in the following aspects:nurse managers'taking proper measures; building up a healthy work environment; promoting nursing job satisfaction, optimizing nursing quality.MethodsSubjects:Nurses from four level-three hospitals of four different cities in Zhejiang province were selected by multi-stage random sampling.Measures:This is a cross-sectional study. Nursing Work Environment Scale(NWE) and Maslach Burnout Inventory(MBI) were distributed to achieve previous aims.Data Analysis:Data was analyzed by SPSS 13.0 and AMOS 17.0. The statistical methods used were t-test, correlation analysis, variance analysis and multiple linear regression.Results1.The nine components of NEW (autonomy, work load, professional development, coworker cohesion, leadership and management, system maintenance and system change, physical environment and logistic support, rights and protections and recognition) were verified. Cronbach's a coefficient of NWE was 0.945 and split-half coefficient was 0.888. Confirmatory factor analysis showed good model fit.2.The mean of NWE was 201.18±30.35. "work load", "recognition" and "rights and protections" got the lowest scores in the 9 dimensions while "system maintenance" "autonomy" and "leadership and management" got the highest. Differences were found according to different demographic characteristics, such as work experiences, marital status, departments, duties and shifts.3.Compare to the region norm of job burnout in Hangzhou, scores of "Emotional Exhaustion" and "Depersonalization" were higher in this study; while the score of "Diminished personal Accomplishment" was lower. Significant differences were found according to different demographic characteristics, such as work experiences, departments, duties and shifts.4.The regression analysis between nursing work environment and job burnout showed that "work load", "system maintenance", "recognition" and "coworker cohesion" had predictive effect on "Emotional Exhaustion". "System maintenance" "work load", "autonomy", "coworker cohesion" and "recognition" had predictive effect on "depersonalization". "Rights and protections", "recognition", "system maintenance" and "work load" had predictive effect on "Diminished personal Accomplishment".ConclusionsFindings showed the NWE scale was reliable and valid. Nurses'perception of nursing work environment was not that good. Negative relationship was found between the nursing work environment and job burnout. Therefore, we recommended nurse managers to create healthy work environment so as to alleviate burnout and promote job satisfaction.