The Relationship of Occupational Burnout and Communication Skills in Nurses

Background and Burnout is one of the most important factors in reducing productivity in organizations and involves physical and mental signs, especially in the human service professions. This research was carried out to examine the relationship of occupational burnout and communication skills in nurses in educational therapeutic hospital of Sari, Iran. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the population included all nurses in educational therapeutic hospital of Sari. Total number was 900. The sample size was 230. They were selected by stratified random sampling. We used three instruments in this study: demographic characteristic questionnaire, Maslach burnout inventory (MBI), and Queendom communication skills inventory. For analyzing the data, descriptive and inferential statistics including one sample size t and Pearson and Spierman correlation coenfficient tests were used. The nurses were moderately high levels of communication skills. Using the MBI subscale, we found moderate levels of emotional exhaustion, low levels of depersonalization and low levels of sense of personal accomplishment. The communication skills had relation with the burnout in personal accomplishment (P < 0.001). We can take improving communication skills in nursing workplaces, in order to reduce the nurse's burnout.