Emotional exhaustion and distress among nurses: how important are AIDS-care specific factors?

This study describes distress symptomatology and levels of job-related exhaustion in a sample of 153 hospital nurses currently caring for AIDS patients. While the level of emotional exhaustion in the sample was not alarmingly high, these nurses did report symptoms of distress. Levels of emotional exhaustion were related to a variety of personal demographic, AIDS-specific, and job-related factors. These factors included: age, income, years of practice on the unit, recent change in shift, type of unit, discomfort caring for AIDS patients, willingness to continue caring for AIDS patients, number of AIDS patients cared for, job tension, job influence, and enthusiasm about returning to work. Regression analysis indicated, however, that six general job-related factors accounted for about 46% of the variation in emotional exhaustion. These results suggest that general job-related factors such as 8-hour shifts, changing shifts, level of job tension, and other factors characterizing all hospital care are particularly worthy of future study.