Measuring Death Attitude and Burnout of Greek Nursing Personnel

Abstract

Occupational burnout is defined as a physical and mental exhaustion syndrome and is the result of chronic stress. Nurses are exposed to the physical and emotional effects of the experience of caring for a dying patient. Aim of this study was to investigate nurses' burnout caring patients at their end of their life. Material and Method: The sample of the research constituted of 110 nursing professionals who are caring patients facing death. Data were obtained using Death Attitude Profile-Revised (DAP-R) and Maslach's burnout inventory (MBI). Results: The factors that appeared to shape the nurses attitudes towards death were age, marital status, education level, position in the workplace, department at work and professional experience. Conclusions: Fear of death and death avoidance were found to correlate statistically significant with the subscale depersonalization and with emotional exhaustion.