Study Reveals Nurses Suffering From Burnout

One of every three U.S. nurses under age 30 plan to leave their jobs within the next year, according to a new study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research. More than 43% of nurses surveyed reported high levels of burnout-citing the nursing shortage, rising patient loads, declining quality of patient care, and verbal abuse as contributing causes.

More than 40% of the nurses surveyed reported that one of their biggest frustrations was having to perform non-nursing tasks such as delivering food trays and transporting patients. Hiring more support staff would help to alleviate this problem-allowing nurses to focus on the job they are trained to do.

The researchers also reported that hospitals need to offer personnel policies and benefits comparable to those offered by other businesses-such as better advancement, lifelong learning opportunities, and flexible work schedules-in order to retain qualified nurses. Solutions such as signing bonuses and hiring temporary personnel were viewed as short-term fixes that will not solve the underlying problems.

However, hospitals will have a difficult time improving working conditions due to the ever-worsening nursing shortage and the financial constraints of the health-care industry in general. According to Roger Baumgarten of the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, one of every three hospitals nationally and three of every four hospitals in Pennsylvania are losing money on patient care. One of the primary causes is limited reimbursement from Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurers.

U.S. nurses were not the only ones experiencing high burnout levels and frustration. Similar problems were found in other countries as well. For example, 32.9% of Canadian nurses reported dissatisfaction with their jobs. This figure was 36.1% in England and 37.7% in Scotland.

The study is being published in the May-June issue of Health Affairs.

From the May 7, 2001 Nando Times article by Bill Bergstrom, "U.S. Nurses Suffering From Burnout, Study Finds."