Thesis

Brewer & Shapard (2004) conducted a research where they looked at the connection between
age and years of experience related to burnout in nurses. These authors chose to look into this
area since there have not been reliable findings related to this and since it has not been shown
consistently that age or years of experience can be connected to burnout. The researchers
conducted a meta-analysis which consisted of 34 studies. The results showed a negative
relationship between age and burnout, and more specifically it was shown that older nurses
reported less burnout than younger nurses. Further, the results also showed a negative
relationship between years of experience and burnout, and more specifically it was shown that
nurses who had worked at their current workplace for a longer period reported less burnout
than nurses who had worked at their current workplace for a shorter period of time. All and
all, Brewer & Shapard (op. cit.) showed that age had a small but significant negative
connection to burnout and years of experience had a small but significant negative connection
to burnout in the United States.
Chang et al. (2006) took part in an international project which looked at role stress in nurses
in Japan, Thailand, South Korea, United States, New Zeeland, and Australia. Part of their
results for the Australian nurses was reported in a separate article and the results of this study
can be found below. In the international project mentioned above, 320 Australian registered
nurses took part. More precisely, the researchers wanted to look at the connection between
demographical factors, workplace stressors, coping mechanisms, physical and mental health
for the 320 Australian nurses. When it came to workplace stress, the researchers found that the
most frequent cause of this kind of stress was workload. After this came death and dying,
conflict with doctors and other nurses, and not being sure about the treatment. Also Lambert,
Lambert & Ito’s (2004) cross-cultural research found that workload, and death and dying were
the most frequent causes for stress among nurses. In Chang et al’s (2006) study the variable
which caused the least stress for the nurses’ were perceived lack of support and insufficient
preparation. Healy & McKay (2000) and Tyler & Cushway (1992, 1995) have also found
similar results. Looking at physical health then Chang et al. (2006) showed that it was
negatively connected to years working as a nurse, death and dying among patients, conflict
with doctors and nurses, workload, and not being sure about the treatment. When it comes to
age, Chang et al. (op. cit.) reported that this was the only significant factor which had a
negative effect on physical health. In this research they could not predict role stress to be
negatively influencing the nurse’s physical health. Chang et al. (op. cit.) also found that higher
levels of workload increased the probability of negative physical health outcomes and