Factors Affecting the Burnout of Clinical Nurses - Focused on Emotional Labor -

Purpose: This study was to identify the factors that influence the burnout of clinical nurses. Methods: Subjects were 279 nurses in 3 university hospitals at Seoul and Gyunggi province. Data were collected with self-administered questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS 16.0 by applying t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and Stepwise multiple regression. Result: There are significant differences between burnout and demographic characteristics, such as, age, marital status, education level, clinical career, and position. All variables except emotional labor were negatively correlated with burnout. The emotional labor was positively correlated with burnout. Job satisfaction, emotional labor, self-efficacy, and age had significant influence on nurses' burnout. The explained variances for burnout was 54.8% and job satisfaction was the most significant factor of burnout of nurses. Conclusion: Emotional labor is found to be a new factor that influences burnout. Therefore, it is necessary to establish new organizational culture through emotional education programs at the organizational level to reduce nurses' emotional labor.