Occupational Burnout and Mental Health. A Study of Psychiatric Nurses from Six European Countries

The nursing profession has been associated with an increased risk of occupational burnout, and el-evated rates of burnout have been reported in nurses from around the world, including psychiatric nurses. As a workplace, a psychiatric hospital is one where particularly stressful factors accumulate, including those related to unpredictable patterns of behaviors revealed by patients with severe mental illness, and many psychiatric nurses are exposed to this long-term stress, thus increasing the risk of burnout. Workplace related burnout may in turn adversely affect other spheres of psy-chosocial functioning in nurses, including their own mental somatic health. The aim of the current study was to assess the incidence of burnout and symptoms of mental health among psychiatric nurses from six European countries and to analyze the possible contribution of burnout to the nurses' mental health. The study was conducted between November 2019 and February 2020 and involved 327 nurses (87% women) working at psychiatric hospitals in six European countries: Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy and Hungary. Participants filled in the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28). The reported levels of occupational burnout differed significantly across the countries. The highest levels of burnout were found in psychiatric nurses from Germany and lowest in nurses form Slovakia. Men showed higher depersonalization than women, but women reported more problems anxiety and insom-nia. Results also showed that depersonalization lowers with age and with work experience, while the sense of personal accomplishment increases with age. Emotional exhaustion was the only burnout factor that worsened with time. However, nearly all mental health symptoms worsened with age and work experience. Symptoms of burnout and mental health problems proved to be related. Emotional exhaustion was the strongest predictor of poor mental health. The degree of depersonalization and occupational burnout associated with a self-perceived sense of personal ac-complishment among the nurses included in the study decreased with age, total work experience, and work experience with the same employer. Emotional exhaustion increased with age and total work experience. As burnout increased, mental health symptoms worsened. Nurses with second-ary education (without university degrees) showed a significantly higher level of burnout caused by their low sense of personal accomplishment.