Relationship of social support to burnout and attitudes toward support groups in nurses

The present study was designed to investigate the relationship of actual social supportive behaviors both inside and outside of the hospital to the level of burnout experienced by nurses. Since group therapy is often recommended to increase the nurses' support network, attitudes toward this treatment modality were also examined.

In order to investigate burnout as it relates to support, nurses were given the Maslach Burnout Inventory to measure feelings of Personal Accomplishment, Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization. The Inventory of Social Supportive Behaviors was used to assess the level of support inside and outside of the hospital environment.

Three hundred seventy-nine nurses participated as part of a nonrandom, convenience sample. Their responses were analyzed using latent trait analyses (normal ogive and logistic models) in order to arrive at a maximum likelihood estimate of the level of each construct (support, burnout) for each subject.

Multiple regression analysis using the maximum likelihood estimates as subject scores showed only a weak positive relationship between amount of support in the hospital and feelings of Personal Accomplishment. Number of years worked on the unit was negatively correlated to Personal Accomplishment. ICU nurses showed significantly higher levels of burnout than nurses in other areas. Overall, hospital supportive behaviors did not strongly predict general level of burnout.

To determine nurses' attitudes toward support groups, 41 subjects were interviewed by telephone. The majority said they would participate in such a group. Approximately 53 percent wanted the group to be held outside of the hospital. Opinions as to who should participate varied. Various other suggestions were made by the nurses about how stress in the hospital could be reduced.

The main limiting factor for generalizability in this study was the fact that the sample was nonrandom. A strong case could be made that highly burned out nurses probably would be unlikely to participate.