The relationship between job stress and burnout levels of oncology nurses

OBJECTIVE: Job stress and burnout levels of oncology nurses increase day-by-day in connection with rapidly increasing cancer cases worldwide as well as in Turkey. The purpose of this study was to establish job stress and burnout levels of oncology nurses and the relationship in between. METHODS: The sample of this descriptive study comprised of 189 nurses that are selected by nonprobability sampling method, employed by 11 hospitals in Istanbul. Survey form of 20 questions, Job Stressors Scale and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) were used during collection of data. Data were evaluated using percentage, Kruskal–Wallis, Mann–Whitney U and Spearman correlation analyses. RESULTS: In the study, there was a positively weak correlation between “Work Role Ambiguity” subdimension of Job Stressors Scale and “Emotional Exhaustion” and “Personal Accomplishment” subdimensions, whereas a positively weak and medium correlation was encountered between “Work Role Conflict” subdimension and “Emotional Exhaustion” and “Depersonalization” subdimensions. A negatively weak correlation was found between “Work Role Overload” subdimension and “Emotional Exhaustion” and “Depersonalization” subdimensions. CONCLUSION: A significant relationship was established between subdimensions of job stress level and of burnout level, that a lot of oncology nurses who have participated in the study wanted to change their units, because of the high attrition rate.