The association between burnout, perceived organizational support, and perceived professional benefits among nurses in China.

OBJECTIVE

This study sought to investigate the relationship between burnout, perceived organizational support (POS) and perceived professional benefits (PPB)as well as to explore factors associated with burnout among nurses in Chinese public hospitals.

METHODS

The purposive sampling method was used to collect data from May 2023 through August 2023. A total of 1058 nurses from 5 public hospitals in Beijing, China, completed the questionnaires. The study used a cross-sectional survey design with data obtained using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-GS), Perceived Organizational Support Scale, and Perceived Professional Benefits Scale. Pearson correlation was used to examine the association between burnout and perceived organizational support with perceived professional benefits, while multivariate regression was used to investigate the specific factors related to both perceived organizational support and perceived professional benefits influencing burnout.

RESULTS

Effective response rate was 1058(93.34 %). The total mean score of burnout was (3.024 ± 0.711), range = (1.59-4.50). Pearson correlation showed that the total mean score of burnout was negatively correlated with the total mean score of POS (r = -0.223,  < 0.01. Additionally, the total mean score of burnout showed a negative correlation with the total mean score of PPB. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that affective perceived organizational support ( < 0.01) and superior support ( < 0.01), sub-dimensions of perceived organizational support, were the main factors influencing burnout. There were no demographic disparities in burnout, except that nurses with ≤8 shift hours per week at night had significantly higher burnout scores (3.19 ± 0.72).

CONCLUSIONS

The study's participants experienced moderately high level of burnout. the findings highlight perceived organizational support and perceived professional benefit can be critical in alleviating burnout, medical institutions and nursing managers should undertake timely and effective interventions to boost organizational support and improve the degree of benefit from their profession. It is also recommended that adequate organizational support be prioritized, with a primary focus on improving affective organizational support and strengthening supervisor support.