Prevalence of burnout among nurses working at a selected psychiatric hospital in Western Cape

Abstract

Research studies allude to the escalation of work related stress, which leads to burnout among mental health nurses, internationally. Mental health nursing is stressful because it is a helping profession that involves close interpersonal working relationships and the burden of providing nursing care to mental health care users (MHCUs) with complex emotional demands. These stressful working conditions render mental health nurses susceptible to burnout. Globally, health care services share a concern about the effects of burnout on nurses. Although burnout is a personal experience for the nurses, the results impact negatively on the quality of care delivered to MHCUs, while increasing the cost of care of the hospitals, which employ these mental health nurses.