Background: Engaged healthcare team members are more likely to be satisfied with their job and remain in their organizations (1-3). However, little is known about the effects of burnout on work engagement in hospital nurses. Therefore, we examined the relationship between burnout, work engagement, and job satisfaction in nurses in a tertiary referral hospital.

Methods: Questionnaires were emailed to all hospital nurses. We asked nurses to provide demographic data, complete the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OBI), and rate how satisfied were they with their job. UWES measures work engagement using vigor, dedication, and absorption domains; while OBI measures burnout using exhaustion and disengagement domains. Questionnaires were scored per recommendations by their authors and mean scores were produced for each. We calculated the mean of total and each UWES domains; while we measured burnout using the following two variables: 1) when burnout was present on both exhaustion and disengagement domains (mean scores: >2.25 and >2.10, respectively; burnout both); and 2) when burnout was present on any of the two domains (burnout any). Job satisfaction was measured on a 5-point Likert scale. Linear regression with the bootstrap method was used to examine the association between UWES and OBI domains and job satisfaction. All models were adjusted for age, gender, race, title, education level, and years of employment.

Results: Of the 2545 hospital nurses contacted, 846 completed the survey (response rate: 33.2%). Mean(SD) age was 38(12) years and mean years of employment was 7.5(8.6) years; 755(89.9%) were females, 765(91%) Caucasians, 723(86%) staff nurses, and 359(44%) had an Associate degree. Mean vigor was 3.3(0.8), dedication 4.0(0.9), absorption 3.2(0.8), overall UWES score 3.5(0.7), and job satisfaction 3.4(0.9), while exhaustion 2.7(0.5), and disengagement 2.4(0.5). Burnout (both domains) was present in 586(70%) of hospital nurses. In both unadjusted and adjusted models, burnout was a negative and strong predictor of all work engagement domains and job satisfaction (Figure).

Conclusions: High burnout is an independent and strong predictor of low work engagement among hospital nurses. Strategies to decrease burnout may also improve nursing work engagement.

IMAGE 1: Figure: Forest Plot of relationship between burnout and work engagement. Burnout was measured as 1) Mean exhaustion, 2) Mean Disengagement. Burnout (both) when mean exhaustion was >2.25 and mean disengagement was >2.10, while Burnout (any) was when mean exhaustion was >2.25 or mean disengagement >2.10. Work engagement was measured using three domains: 1) mean absorption, 2) mean dedication, 3) mean vigor.