Empathy, stress and professional burnout syndrome suffered by psychiatric nurses

Objective: The objective of the paper was an analysis of relations between the level of empathy, styles of coping with stress, and professional burnout syndrome in psychiatric nurses. Materials and methods: The study involved 64 members of nursing staff who usually (90.6%) work in 12-hour shifts in psychiatric wards in southern Poland, mostly women (93.8%). The average age of the entire group was 42.91 years, and more than half had a higher nursing education (54.7%). The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) by M.H. Davis for the purpose of measurement of empathy level in four scales, the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) by N.S. Endler and J.D.A. Parker that distinguishes three different styles of coping with stress, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) by Ch. Maslach to measure three burnout dimensions, were used for the study. Results: Regression analysis showed that the significant professional burnout predictors were emotionoriented style, search for social contact and avoidance-oriented style, and two out of four types of empathy: personal distress, and also assumption of someone else’s perspective, the only one of the above-mentioned predictors that prevents burnout. Conclusions: Among the psychiatric nurses who participated in the study, those characterised by a higher empathy level more often choose more constructive styles of coping with stress, and are less vulnerable to professional burnout. Consequently, the legitimacy of introducing empathy training and educational programmes related to coping with stress in the educational process was confirmed.