Improving Health of Nurses With Burnout Through Positive Psychological Intervention

Burnout is usually regarded as a response to chronic professional stressors like high workload, unfavorable emotion and complex interpersonal relationships. A high prevalence of burnout was found in many countries, and large-scale studies also showed high levels of burnout in Chinese nurses. As a stress-related syndrome, burnout was found to have detrimental influences on both psychological and physical health of nurses. Psychological problems such as depression and insomnia are verified to be associated with burnout. Endocrine dysfunction such as abnormal cortisol secretion rhythm occurred in shift-work nurses. Thyroid dysfunction was increasing and a sample of nurses were diagnosed with thyroid nodules and thyroid hormonal disorder during annual physical examination. Therefore, it is important to take measures to alleviate nurses' burnout to improve health.

Positive psychological interventions are defined as treatment methods or intentional activities to enhance person's positive emotions, cognitions and behaviours. In these methods and activities, people are usually required to finish a systematic exercise. According to a recent meta-analysis, Positive psychological interventions showed effectiveness in enhancing participants' well-being and reducing depressive symptoms. Therefore, this study aims to explore whether positive psychological intervention could reduce burnout and improve health of nurses.