Staff burnout is increasingly viewed as a concern in the mental health field. In this article we first examine the extent to which burnout is a problem for mental health services in terms of two critical issues: its prevalence and its association with a range of undesirable outcomes for staff, organizations, and consumers. We subsequently provide a comprehensive review of the limited research attempting to remediate burnout among mental health staff. We conclude with recommendations for the development and rigorous testing of intervention approaches to address this critical area.

/pdf/burnout-in-mental-health-services-a-review-of-the-problem-4iz9cphcf4.pdf

Burnout in Mental Health Services: A Review of the Problem and Its Remediation

ObjectiveThe effectiveness of any strategy that aims to improve recruitment and retention in the nursing profession will depend in part upon understanding the factors and influences on nurses’ job satisfaction.BackgroundThe nursing work force is aging. The question now commonly asked by the nursing

The effects of nurses' job satisfaction on retention: an Australian perspective.

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that many community mental health nurses (CMHNs) experience considerable stress and burnout. This review aimed to bring together the research evidence in this area for CMHNs working within the UK. Seventeen papers were identified in the literature, seven of which looked at stress and burnout for all members of community mental health teams (CMHTs) and the remaining 10 papers focused on CMHNs. The evidence indicates that those health professionals working as part of community teams are experiencing increasing levels of stress and burnout as a result of increasing workloads, increasing administration and lack of resources. For CMHNs specific stressors were identified. These included increases in workload and administration, time management, inappropriate referrals, safety issues, role conflict, role ambiguity, lack of supervision, not having enough time for personal study and NHS reforms, general working conditions and lack of funding and resources. Areas for future research are described and the current study of Welsh CMHNs is announced. This review has been completed against a background of further significant changes in the health service. In the mental health field, specific new initiatives will have a significant impact on the practice of community mental health nursing. A new National Framework for Mental Health, along with a review of the Mental Health Act (1983), will undoubtedly help to shape the future practice of mental health nursing.

Stress and burnout in community mental health nursing: a review of the literature.

There are enormous concerns regarding the recruitment, retention, training, and performance of the behavioral health workforce. Paramount among these concerns is turnover, which causes disruption in continuity of care, diminishes access to care while a position remains vacant, and poses financial hardship on the provider organization through costs related to recruitment, orientation, and training of a new hire. There is frequent mention of burnout within the literature and among behavioral health managers as a potential cause of turnover. However, there is no recent or comprehensive review of burnout that examines the evidence surrounding its validity, utility, and potential relationship to turnover. The purpose of this paper is to provide such a review by examining the construct of burnout, methodological and measurement issues, its prevalence in the mental health workforce, correlates of burnout, and interventions to decrease it. The implications for provider organizations and recommendations for future research are identified.

Burnout in the mental health workforce: a review.

Causal modeling of self-concept, job satisfaction, and retention of nurses

Emotional exhaustion, low personal accomplishment, depersonalisation, job satisfaction and sick leave among 445 team members in 57 community mental health teams (CMHTs) was examined in relation to the perceived clarity of the role of the team, personal role clarity, identification with one's profession and the team, and caseload size, composition and the frequency with which users were seen. High emotional exhaustion was reported, particularly among consultant psychiatrists, social workers, nurses and psychologists. High job satisfaction, high personal accomplishment and low depersonalisation were also found. Job satisfaction was associated with team role clarity and identification with the team. Caseload size, composition and the frequency with which service users were seen were not associated with job satisfaction or burnout. Significant differences were found between disciplines on all variables except sick leave. Implications for the design and operation of teams are explored.

Tracey Pillinger

Papers

Job satisfaction and burnout among members of community mental health teams