Understanding Burnout In Nurses – Take Part In My 15 Min Survey

"In light of COVID, understanding nursing burnout is more urgent than ever. My Msc research into it will help support nurses better. Please consider completing my 15 min survey" - Emma Turner, Msc Student at Birkbeck, University of London

Emma needs nurses to complete a survey into burnout and employee-employer relationships. Burnout’s a hot topic right now. This will provide an understanding of how to support nurses better. She asked us for our help and we decided to offer it. Emma explains more below.

Burnout has been a long-standing issue in the nursing profession, receiving global attention from researchers for decades.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding and addressing this issue is more urgent today than it has ever been.

I’m conducting a survey as part of my MSc degree in Organizational Psychology, which aims to broaden our understanding of this important issue by exploring some less understood areas of burnout. I’d love to hear from you!

The more responses I have the clearer the findings.

Please get involved by completing my survey.

The Employee-Employer Relationship

We know there are major triggers of burnout inherent in your profession, but other sources of stress are less clear.

The employee-employer relationship being one of them, which we call the Psychological Contract.

Unlike your legal employment contract, the psychological contract contains the more personal, unwritten promises and expectations of your employment relationship.

You build and shape this contract over time, through your interactions with your direct manager and wider organization’s management team.

Do you feel that your employer fulfils their side of the relationship?

How does this shape your day-to-day experience of work as a nurse?

Work-Life Resources

We also know that ‘work’ and ‘life’ do not exist separate to each other.

But again, there is little research on burnout in nurses that take into account their whole work-life context.

We have many resources in life they can be present in abundance or hard to build.

Some are more important than others, some impact how a lack of other resources might affect us.

Where are your key resources in life, and how well are you able to access these resources?

Why Is This Important?

First and foremost, burnout can have a big impact on your life inside and outside of work, including your mental and physical health.

For that reason alone we should be striving to better understand why and when it takes place, to inform how employers take care of their nurses.

Helping them make the right changes to build healthier, more supportive environments to work in.

Beyond the first-hand impact of burnout, it is also an important issue for patient care and the overall performance of the healthcare industry.

This is because burnout can stop you performing at your best, or being able to work at all.

It is also a major reason by newly nurses leave the profession.

What Will I Be Asked In This Survey?

This survey will ask you questions on the three topics:

● Burnout

● Psychological

● Contract and Resources

I’ll also ask you a few demographic questions to understand your background and area of nursing.

The survey will take you about 15 minutes to complete.

The questions use mostly rating scales, making it simple and easy to give your answers.

It’s important you feel comfortable to be honest in your answers, therefore this survey is completely anonymous – we won’t ask for your name or where you work.

This research is being conducted as part of my MSc degree in Organizational Psychology, and has received ethical approval.

You’ll find more information and contact details in the survey link.

Will I Get To See The Findings?

Yes! I will be writing a follow-up article to share my research findings with all Nurses.co.uk subscribers.

But don’t worry, only broad patterns and trends in the data will be shared to ensure your answers remain anonymous.

Watch this space!

Alternatively, you can get in touch via the contact details in the survey link.

Thank you for your time and input. You can read more about career break.