Background: The burnout syndrome, as defined in literature, is the ultimate result of prolonged stress in the professional life of nurses characterised mainly by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment.
Aim: The purpose of the present study was to investigate and analyse those factors of the work environment that have an effect on the development of burnout syndrome in nurses working in an oncology in-patient clinic.
Material and methods: The study was designed as a questionnaire survey. Our study sample consisted of 70 nurses representing 78% of the medical nursing staff in the Plovdiv Oncology In-patient Clinic. Descriptive statistics and the analysis of proportions were used in the statistical analysis of data. Calculations and graphical presentation were done using MS Excel 97 and SPSS 11.0.
Results and discussion: Most of the respondents (98.5%) said that the pain experienced by patients was the most significant factor contributing to their emotional exhaustion. The following factors were ranked by the respondents given in ascending order of strength: strong pain--100%, fear of death--59.4%, the thought that the patients leave their relatives for good--55.1%. Most of the respondents (56.5%) reported that it was the everyday encounter with pain and lack of hope that depressed them most; 67% of them said they were demotivated by the everyday encounter with death. We should also note the fact that more than half of the respondents said that their professional life affected their social life and the relations within their families.
Conclusion: Our results are consistent with those reported by Haberman MR according to whom the care for a dying cancer patient is the most difficult aspect of nursing as a profession.