The relationship between experiential avoidance and burnout syndrome in critical care nurses: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.

Background: Critical care nurses often face complex stressful situations, and the phenomenon of burnout syndrome has been recognized as an important and increasing problem. Recent research suggests that another phenomenon, experiential avoidance, may be associated with burnout syndrome.

Objectives: To determine the relationship between burnout syndrome and experiential avoidance in Spanish critical care nurses and to evaluate the relationships between burnout, experiential avoidance, certain health habits, and sociodemographic and job-related factors.

Design: A descriptive survey.

Setting: Participants were recruited from the critical care units of five major hospitals in the Northern State of Spain, Principado de Asturias.

Participants: Of 98 critical care nurses who met the criteria for study inclusion, 80 agreed to participate and completed the survey. The participants were staff nurses who had worked a minimum of 1 year full-time in a critical care unit. Most were women and were aged 22-56 years.

Methods: The survey instrument consisted of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (to measure burnout) and the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (to measure experiential avoidance). The survey also collected data regarding age, sex, marital status, type of hospital, years of critical care experience, number of patients per nurse, and self-reported tobacco dependency greater than 6 months.

Results: Participants showed high levels of emotional exhaustion (25.19+/-10.52), moderate levels of depersonalization (6.53+/-6.04), and low levels of accomplishment (8.95+/-7.890) as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire revealed a mean low pathologic score of 35.29+/-6.56. Pearson product moment correlation analysis indicated a significant inverse correlation between scores on the Maslach Burnout Inventory accomplishment subscale and scores on the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire frequency (r=0.237, p=0.05). More marked and significant was the positive correlation between the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire score and the depersonalization (r=0.525, p=0.01) and emotional exhaustion (r=0.507, p=0.01) subscale scores. Being older than 30 years and having more than 10 years of experience in a critical care environment as a nurse were significantly related to emotional exhaustion as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Clear evidence was found of an association between marital status and accomplishment (p=0.01) and between tobacco habit and depersonalization (p=0.003).

Conclusions: This study demonstrates a relationship between experiential avoidance and burnout syndrome in critical care nurses in Spain. Being older than 30 years, having more than 10 years of experience, being single, and smoking were associated with a nurse's vulnerability to burnout syndrome.