| dc.description.abstract | Introduction: Burnout, a terminology made popular by Felton (200 I), consists of a triad of
emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (treating patients as :f they were objects) and [ow
productivity or achievements. "Burned out" healthcare professionals are more likely to
deliver services which are suboptimal which could potentially result in disaster. Employees
in "people work" jobs experience more burnout than employees in other occupational groups
(Brotheridge, 2002). Burnout has been shown to have negative effects not only on the
employees directly, for the clients they serve and the agencies that employ them. Not only
has burnout been linked with physical illness (Powell, 1994; Rohland, 2000; Brotheridge &
Grandey, 2002), it also increases the chances of workers turning over which reduces the
efficacy of services provided to clients (Collings & Murray, 1996) and leads to a loss of
continuity of services to families (Winefield & Barlow, 1994). Departure of stressed staff
represents a loss to the agency of that person's training and experience, as well as consequent
time and money spent training a replacement (Winefield & Barlow, 1994). This paper asks
the question: What is the magnitude and effect of stress and burnout among nurses at
Kenyatta National Hospital. Health sector reforms being effected at KNH in a bid to improve
quality of health services, may not be sustainable if burnout, the root cause of [ow
productivity is not addressed. No study that we were aware of at the time of the study, had
been carried out to determine the causes and effects of burn out among nurses at KNH.
Problem Statement: There are rampant cases of alcohol and drug abuse, depression,
frequent hospitalizations due to psychiatric related issues, suicide and a steady decline in the
quality of nursing services offered to patients at KNH. Several staff have resigned citing
stress as one of the causes.(KNH Data 2012) Most departments with heavy workload-Ithe
medical and surgical wards) register high number of staff on sick leave and emergency leave.
This in turn compromises quality of patient care as some wards on frequent basis have one
nurse reporting on duty against sixty plus patients to care for.(KNH Data 2012).Such
ppenings have been suspected to be as a result of stress and burn out. Study Objective: To
determine the magnitude and effects of occupational stress burnout among nurses at Kenyatta
National Hospital. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional survey of nurses working in the
general medical, surgical wards and medical and surgical out-patient clinics involving 182
participants was conducted for a period of four weeks between October 2012 and November
2012. Self-administered questionnaires were completed by the participants. Data was
analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Quantitative (multivariate) data analysis | en_US |
