Burnout in nurses - the relationship between social capital in hospitals and emotional exhaustion

Aims. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between a hospital's social capital, individual decision latitude, workload and emotional exhaustion in nurses, controlling for age, sex, years of professional experience and job tenure. Background. In western countries between 15-45% of nurses working in hospitals suffer from burnout, characterised by emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and decreased personal performance. The prevention of burnout constitutes a great challenge to those responsible for the health care system, not least because burnout may cause increasing turnover rates in nurses and lead to medical mistakes. Design. Survey. Method. A questionnaire was mailed to 1325 nurses working at four hospitals in east and west Germany in 2002. Nine hundred and fifty nine nurses responded (response rate: 72 center dot 4%). Results. Logistic regression identified three significant predictors of emotional exhaustion in nurses: workload (OR: 4 center dot 523, CI: 3 center dot 230-6 center dot 333) was positively associated with emotional exhaustion. Decision latitude (OR: 0 center dot 376, CI: 0 center dot 254-0 center dot 557) and social capital in the hospitals (OR: 0 center dot 549, CI: 0 center dot 403-0 center dot 746) were negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion was not affected by age, sex, years of professional experience and job tenure. Nagelkerke's Pseudo R2 was 0 center dot 225. Conclusions. The findings underline the importance of social capital and organisational development in hospital management. Relevance to clinical practice. Efforts to create a good working atmosphere with readiness to provide mutual support and the pursuit of joint values in a hospital, the reduction of workload and increased decision latitude may prevent the development of emotional exhaustion in nurses.