Burnout is common in industrial countries. In this study, our aim is to investigate the relationship between burnout and social support (SS) among hospital nurses. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in 7 hospitals from three provinces of China. A total of 1212 registered hospital nurses were included, the respond rate is 94.4% (1144/1212). A self-administered questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic characteristics, burnout and SS was used in this study. A revised version of Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was applied to evaluate the burnout and SS was measured by nine questions. Logistic regression analysis was used to explore the association between burnout and SS after controlling for age, gender, marital status, working years, income, educational level, and profession. According to the results obtained from the study, 66% of the staff suffered from emotional exhaustion (EE) in moderate or severe degree, 65% of them suffered from depersonalization (DP) and 63% feel lower personal achievements (PAs). It means that higher level of EE, DP and lower PAs were considered care providers in the hospital nurse. Further correlation analysis indicated that the score of EE, DP and PAs were negative associated with the score of SS (P<0.05). The univariate analysis and multivariate analysis results also revealed that the SS score negative associated with DP score and positively associated with PAs score after controlling for age, gender, marital status, working years, income, educational level and job title. SS have a significantly influences on depersonalization in hospitals nurse. This study also suggests that we should pay more attention to the relationship between burnout and reduced personal accomplishment in future studies.
Keywords: Nurses; burnout; social support.