Aging & Society: Eighth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

This study aimed to create a Vietnamese version of both the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) and Areas of Worklife Scale (AWS) to assess the burnout state of Vietnamese clinical nurses and to develop a causal model of burnout of clinical nurses. Methods: We conducted a descriptive design using a cross-sectional survey. The questionnaire was hand-divided directly by nursing departments to 500 clinical nurses in three hospitals. Vietnamese MBI-GS and AWS were then examined for reliability and validity. We used the revised exhaustion + 1 burnout classification to access burnout state. We performed path analysis to develop a Vietnamese causal model basing on the original model by Leiter and Maslach’s theory. Results: We found that both scales were reliable and valid for assessing burnout. Among nurse participants, the percentage of severe burnout was 0.7 %, burnout was 15.8% and 17.2% of nurses was exhausted. The best predictor of burnout was “on-duty work schedule” that clinical nurses have to work for 24 hours. In the causal model, we also found similarity and difference pathways in comparison with the original model. Conclusions: Vietnamese MBI-GS and AWS were applicable to research on occupational stress. Nearly one-fifth of Vietnamese clinical nurses were working in burnout state. The causal model suggested a range of factors resulting in burnout, it is necessary to consider the specific solution to prevent burnout problem.