A Study On The Implicit And Explicit Future Thinking In Nurses With Burnout

ObjectiveThis study aims to examine the abnormal implicit and explicit future thinking in nurses with burnout,to provide objective evidence for the construction of a cognitive,evaluative,and intervention system for nurses with burnout.MethodsThis thesis includes two studies.Study 1 used the Sentence Completion for Events in the Future Test(SCEFT)to investigate the differences in implicit future thinking between nurses with and without burnout.First,a cross-sectional survey design was used to investigate the current status of burnout among 458 nurses at a tertiary hospital in Hangzhou using the Maslach Burnout Inventory.Second,the SCEFT was used to examine the implicit future thinking in nurses with burnout.The contents were evaluated from specificity,emotional valence,and content.The differences in implicit future thinking between nurses with mild,moderate,and severe burnout were further compared based on intergroup comparisons.The relationship between the dimensions of burnout and future thinking was analyzed based on the results of intergroup and intragroup comparisons.Study 2 used the Likelihood Estimation Measurement(LEM)to investigate the differences in explicit future thinking between nurses with and without burnout.Future events included positive and negative events,and nurses were required to evaluate the possibility,importance,and emotional valence of these events occurring to themselves.The differences in explicit future thinking between nurses with mild,moderate,and severe burnout were also compared.ResultsStudy 1 found that:(1)Compared with nurses without burnout,nurses with burnout imagined fewer details of future events(Z =-4.578,P <0.001)and had more situations they could not imagine(Z =-2.667,P <0.05);(2)Nurses with burnout imagined fewer positive future events and more negative future events;(3)Correlation analysis results showed that the specificity,content,and emotional valence of future thinking were positively correlated with emotional exhaustion and depersonalization but negatively correlated with personal accomplishment.Study 2found that:(1)Nurses rated the possibility,importance,and emotional valence of future positive events higher than those of future negative events;(2)Nurses with burnout rated the possibility of future positive events lower than those without burnout(t = 3.478,P <0.001);(3)Nurses with burnout rated the importance of future positive events lower(t = 2.436,P <0.05).Conclusion(1)The future thinking ability of nurses with burnout is impaired,and their abnormal imagination of the future is related to the manifestation of burnout.Nurses with burnout not only exists in the present but also manifests in their imagination of the future.(2)Nurses with burnout have higher positive future imaginations than negative future imaginations but still show characteristics of emotional exhaustion,fewer positive events,and more negative events.(3)Although nurses with burnout imagine more negative future events,they can still rationally evaluate the likelihood of these events occurring.