Study on the relationships between nurses' job burnout and subjective well-being

ObjectiveTo study factors influencing nurses' job burnout and their subjective well-being and to explore the relationships between these two phenomena.MethodsA total of 250 nurses from three hospitals in Shandong were evaluated with the Maslach Burnout Inventory and a subjective well-being scale.ResultsNursing staff showed significantly different levels of job burnout (P < 0.05) according to the following characteristics: age, marital status, educational background, technical title, years of nursing experience, monthly income, manning quotas and parental status. Level of burnout is higher for nursing staff who are under the age of 30 years, are unmarried, had secondary education, had unofficial manning quota status, are childless, hold a primary title and whose years of nursing experience are less than five years. Statistical significance was found for life satisfaction (P < 0.05) with differences in age; marital status; technical title; years of nursing experience; monthly income; manning quota status; and parental status in positive emotion, negative emotion and degree. There is a significant negative correlation between every dimension of job burnout and life satisfaction and positive emotions for subjective well-being. Every component of job burnout was significantly positively correlated with negative emotions. (P < 0.05).ConclusionAge, marital status, educational background, technical title, years of nursing experience, monthly income, manning quotas and parental status have different influences on occupation burnout and subjective well-being. Dimensions of occupation burnout have functions of predicting subjective well-being.