Readiness of Polish nurses for prescribing and the level of professional burnout

Abstract

Those in the medical profession, due to close contact and the emotional commitment of caring for patients, are particularly vulnerable to the occurrence of a phenomenon known as occupational ‘burnout’. The presented work deals with the problem of burnout and its relationship with new tasks undertaken by nurses. The aim of the study was an analysis of the relationship between the level of professional burnout of the nurses examined and their readiness to take on new duties related to writing prescriptions. The study was conducted among primary health care (PHC) and outpatient specialist care (OSC) nurses. The author’s questionnaire and the standardized Link Burnout Questionnaire (LBQ) were used. The highest level of occupational burnout was related to psychophysical exhaustion (16.00 ± 6.21). Higher results of occupational burnout among the nurses surveyed were matched by the lower readiness of the nurses to administer medicines and write prescriptions.