The relationship between nurses' burnout status and their intention to leave during the COVID-19 pandemic process

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this research is to determine the relationship between nurses' burnout status and their intention to leave the job during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: The population of the descriptive study, which seeks a relationship, consists of nurses working in State Hospital, the sample consists of 213 nurses who agreed to participate in the research between April 2021 and August 2021. Data were collected using the ‘Personal Data Collection Form’, ‘Burnout Scale’ and ‘Intention to Leave Scale’. Ethics committee approval was obtained for the study. Results: Of the participants, 75.6% were women, 91.1% cared for patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19. The participants' Burnout Scale mean score was 4.34 ± 1.10, and the Intention to Leave Scale mean score was 2.94 ± 1.04. The relationship between burnout and age, gender, marital status, income status, unit of work, professional experience, choosing the profession voluntarily, being happy to do the job and caring for a patient with COVID-19 was found to be statistically significant (p < 0.05). It has been concluded that age, income status, unit of work, professional experience, choosing the profession willingly and being happy to do the job affect the intention to leave the job. A positive and significant relationship was found between the mean scores of the Burnout Scale and the mean scores of the Intention to Leave Scale. Conclusion: This study determined that as nurses' burnout level increased, their intention to quit their jobs increased.