Relationship Between Professional Identity and Burnout Among Nurses Working for University Hospitals

Abstract

To identify the relationship between professional identity and burnout of nurses working for university hospitals, a self-rating anonymous questionnaire survey was conducted in four participating university hospitals in the Kanto region in Japan with 2,926 nurses excluding nursing directors, midwives, and part-time nurses. The questionnaire is comprised of the Maslach Burnout Inventory Human Service Survey (MBI-HSS), the Professional Identity Scale for nurses, and a shortened version of the Three-Dimensional Commitment Scale. Responses from 1,452 nurses were analyzed. The age and length of clinical experience (mean±SD) were 32.53±9.56 years and 9.49±8.36 years, respectively. The total scores of the MBI-HSS, and the Professional Identity Scale for nurses were 11.93±2.68 and 61.92±8.40, respectively. A multiple regression analysis showed that burnout is related to the “professional identity” (β＝－0.257, p<0.01). This result shows that nurses with stronger professional identity are less likely to develop burnout. Respondents who had higher scores in professional identity were mainly nurses of higher age, longer clinical experience, having spouse and children, and working in the position of assistant head nurse or chief. These nurses attach a high value to the organizations they belong to, reporting that the “organization understand individual values”, and that “My hospital provides support for career advancement such as going on to higher education and research.”, “I am satisfied with the present salary”, and that “It is easy to get time off as I wish”. Their “emotional commitment”, “continuous commitment”, and “normative commitment” were high, and few of these nurses reported a “wish to leave their current workplace” or had a “wish to switch to a different occupation”. Developing nurses by referring to the characteristics of those with high professional identities will prevent their burnout.