Job-related burnout among nurses is linked to greater healthcare-associated infection rates (HAIs) and cost hospitals millions of dollars annually, according to a study published in the American Journal of Infection Control.
Researchers from the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing analyzed data previously collected by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, the American Hospital Association Annual Survey, and a 2006 survey of more than 7000 registered nurses from 161 hospitals in Pennsylvania. Study authors examined the effect of nurse staffing and burnout on 2 of the most common HAIs: catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) and surgical site infections (SSI).
Using the emotional exhaustion subscale from the nurses’ Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) responses, researchers determined job-related burnout. The MBI-HSS filters 22 items on job-related attitudes into emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. The survey considers emotional exhaustion the key component to burnout syndrome. More specifically, an emotional exhaustion score of 27 or greater constitutes the MBI-HSS definition of healthcare personnel burnout. Researchers discovered that more than one-third of survey respondents got an emotional exhaustion score of 27 or greater.
Comparing CAUTI rates with nurses’ patient loads, which averaged 5.7 patients, the researchers discovered that for each additional patient assigned to a nurse, there was approximately 1 additional infection per 1000 patients. This calculated to 1351 additional infections per year. Furthermore, each 10% increase in a hospital’s rate of emotionally exhausted nurses corresponded with nearly 1 additional CAUTI and 2 additional SSIs per 1000 patients annually.
Per-patient average costs related to CAUTIs range from $749 to $832. For SSIs the costs run from $11,087 to $29,443 each. Thus, researchers estimate that reducing burnout rates to one-tenth from an average of one-third could prevent an estimated 4160 infections annually with an associated savings of $41 million.
“Healthcare facilities can improve nurse staffing and other elements of the care environment and alleviate job-related burnout in nurses at a much lower cost than those associated with healthcare-associated infections,” conclude the authors. “By reducing nurse burnout, we can improve the well-being of nurses while improving the quality of patient care.”
Source: APIC.
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