2019, Cilt 6, Sayı 2, Sayfa(lar) 101-109
The Relationship Between Empathic Tendencies, Emotional Labor Behaviors and Burnout Levels of Pediatric Nurses
Gamze YILMAZ1, Gülbeyaz BARAN DURMAZ2
1Ağrı İbrahim Çeçen Üniversitesi Sağlık Yüksekokulu Hemşirelik Bölümü, Ağrı, Türkiye
2Dicle Üniversitesi Atatürk Sağlık Yüksekokulu Hemşirelik Bölümü, Diyarbakır, Türkiye
Keywords: Burnout, emotional labor, empathy, pediatric nurse

Aim: This study was conducted as a descriptive study to determine the relationship between the empathic tendency, emotional labor behaviors, and burnout levels of pediatric nurses.

Material and Methods: The study was carried out without any sample selection with 66 pediatric nurses working in hospitals in Ağrı province center and in district hospitals with pediatric service and who agreed to participate in the study. "Introductory Information Form", "Empathic Tendency Scale", "Emotional Labor Scale" and "Maslach Burnout Scale" were used as data collection tools.

Results: The average age of participating pediatric nurses was found to be 28.36±6.13. 54.5% of them were female, 60.6% of them were married, 62.1% had bachelor’s degree, 43.9% of them worked as a pediatric nurse for 2-5 years. It was determined that the pediatric nurses had moderate empathic inclination and used emotional effort and superficial behavior sub-dimensions more on emotional labor scale. It was found that the nurses experienced moderate burnout in the emotional exhaustion and desensitization sub-dimension and high-level burnout in personal success dimension. There was a statistically significant negative correlation between empathic tendency and average burnout scores of nurses and between superficial behavior and emotional exhaustion (p<0.05).

Conclusion: High emphatic tendency and superficial behavior have been found to reduce burnout levels of pediatric nurses.