Reducing Stress and Burnout in Hospice and Palliative Care Through Education

AbstractBurnout, a syndrome described as a state of mental and or physical exhaustion, impacts the workforce of hospice and palliative nurses where employees’ behaviors and professional efficacy reflect poorly on their work. The prevalence of burnout among hospice nurses led to the development of this project. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) served as a reference guide for developing the content, which addressed whether a staff education program at this Southeastern United States facility, would affect a change in knowledge among hospice nurses reduce burnout. Knowles’s theory of adult learning framed this education program on self-care and stress management. Focus was placed on the adult learners’ ways of processing and practicing interventions presented through education. Questions were presented electronically, in a pretest/posttest design, with MBI as the guiding format. 30 nurse participants responded. Descriptive statistics showed an increase in the staff’s knowledge on stress management and self-care. Although only 60% of the nurse participants reported taking time for themselves daily after education, this was an increase from 43.3% prior. The participating hospice nurses attributed stress levels to their job at a lesser degree after the educational intervention. The staff demonstrated an expected increase of 10% in knowledge of burnout symptoms after the education exercise. This project has the potential to effect positive social change by improving the staff’s knowledge of self-care activities and stress management to prevent burnout. Patients and hospice organizations may benefit from staff who effectively implement stress management strategies through better patient care and employee retention, respectively