2016 Volume 25 Issue 1 Pages 56-64
Introduction: This study investigated the effects of the social skills of nurses working in super psychiatric facilities. Super psychiatric facilities are designated by the Japanese government as facilities that offer 24-hour emergency treatment for patients with psychiatric disorder. Nurses working in these facilities are known to face extremely high stressors on a daily basis and frequently suffer from burnout.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between social skills and burnout to avoid burnout among nurses working in super psychiatric facilities.
Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted from May to July 2014 using self-administered questionnaires. A total of 1,251 nurses working in 56 super psychiatric facilities throughout Japan participated in the survey. The self-administered questionnaire used Kikuchi's Scale of Social Skills to measure nurses' social skills and the Japanese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory to measure degree of burnout. Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed with social skills as independent variable and burnout as dependent variable.
Results: The multiple logistic regression analyses showed that high social skills tended to reduce the risk of burnout.
Conclusions: Social skills appeared to directly and indirectly reduce the risk of burnout among nurses in super psychiatric facilities. Social skills training for nurses working in these facilities may help prevent burnout. Further research is needed to determine the causal relationship between social skills and burnout.
