| Burnout among nurses has been identified as a key factor in nurse turnover, reduced productivity, increased operating costs, and decreased quality of patient care. The purpose of this quantitative, nonexperimental study was to explore relationships between six domains of the areas of worklife (AWL), core self-evaluation (CSE), and the three dimensions of burnout in nurses. Data were collected from 190 registered nurses to assess study variables, and linear regression and hierarchical linear regression were used to test hypotheses related to the effects of the six domains of AWL and CSE on burnout, including whether CSE moderates the relationships between AWL and burnout. The six domains of AWL significantly predicted each of the three dimensions of burnout at the Bonferroni-corrected .017 level of significance ( p < .001): exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy. Likewise, CSE significantly predicted the three dimensions of burnout at the Bonferroni-corrected .017 level of significance (p < .001): exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy. Recommendations for administrators included increased awareness of linkages between the areas of worklife, the dimensions of burnout, and specific organizational outcomes, and to focus on improvement of the domains of AWL that have an impact on burnout. CSE should be used to identify nurses who are more susceptible to burnout. Longitudinal research may allow researchers to better understand the impact of CSE on burnout over time, and, additionally, research incorporating objective measures of work characteristics may isolate the effects of CSE on burnout. Also, future research was recommended to explore the possibility that the six domains of AWL mediate the relationship between CSE and burnout. Finally, more research focused on early career burnout was recommended to address the specific problem of job turnover within the first few years of career entry into the field of nursing. |
