Was I prepared for burnout? : A qualitative study about burnout among nurses

The aim of this study was to identify what resources and information nurses have access to concerning burnout in order to see how effectively burnout prevention measures have been implemented into the nursing work place. The areas focused on are knowledge about burnout possessed by nurses, resources that are available to nurses and from where nurses´ knowledge and resources about burnout come from. The outcomes that were sought after were to raise awareness to the potential harm of burnout to nurses and to stimulate discussion as to whether nurses are receiving the necessary education and resources to best avoid burnout. The theoretical framework of this study is based on Antonovsky´s (1988) theory of Sense of Coherence, which helps explain the factors that affect whether a person is negatively impacted by difficult circumstances. The other part of the theory used is the stage theory of organizational change (Kaluzany and Hernandez, 1988), which outlines how changes are implemented into organizations. This study was a qualitative study done inductively by conducting semi-structured interviews of registered nurses. Six nurses participated in the study from three different countries. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data and find themes. Four main themes were identified: resources provided by work places, personal resources, formal learning, and informal learning. The main findings were that both nursing schools and work places provide little information to nurses about burnout and very limited resources are given to burnout prevention by work places. The most commonly used resources to prevent burnout were personal in nature