Recommendation for the prevention of nursing burnout

Burnout is a bio-psychosocial response related to chronic stress in the work environment (Hertel, 2009). In nursing, burnout can affect the work environment, coworker relationships, and patient care. It can lead to patient dissatisfaction, nurse dissatisfaction and even patient harm. With the nursing shortage predicted to increase to over 1,000,000 by the year 2012, it is of vital importance that methods to reduce and prevent burnout be researched and implemented in order to retain nurses and ensure the delivery of safe and effective care. The purpose of this literature review was to determine what knowledge base already existed about the effects of burnout on patient care and how to reduce the incidence of burnout among nurses. The writing of this review is an effort to encourage nurses and nursing managers to identify early signs of burnout and implement the supported interventions as a way to retain nurses and encourage patient safety. An integrative review of research was performed using Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) Plus with Full-Text, MEDLINE, PubMed, Academic Search Premiere and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Search terms included \u27nurs*\u27 and \u27burnout\u27. This review included literature available in English and research conducted between 1998 and 2010. Factors that contribute to burnout such as personality traits, support systems, job demands, management and coping techniques and resources were examined