Thesis

positive accomplishment in the nurse’s work with her patients. Burnout is thought of as a
continuous variable, going from low to moderate to high levels of the experienced feeling. A
low level of burnout is attained by scoring low on emotional exhaustion and
depersonalization, and by scoring high on personal accomplishment. A moderate level of
burnout is attained by scoring average scores on all the three dimensions of burnout. A high
level of burnout is attained by scoring high on emotional exhaustion and depersonalization,
and by scoring low on personal accomplishment. Additionally, since there is inadequate
knowledge about the interaction between the three dimensions of burnout, the scores for each
dimension is considered individually and they are not combined into one, total score.
Consequently, three scores are calculated for each person.
The MBI-HSS has 22 items which have to be evaluated on a scale ranging from 0 (never) to 6
(every day). When it comes to the reliability of the scale, reliability coefficients for the three
dimensions have been reported in regard to different samples. In one sample the reliability
coefficients were .90 for emotional exhaustion, .79 for depersonalization, and .71 for personal
accomplishment. Results for test-retest reliability for the scale have been reported for five
samples. For the first sample the test-retest coefficients were ranging from low to moderately
high and were .82 for emotional exhaustion, .60 for depersonalization, and .80 for personal
accomplishment, for a two to four weeks interval. For the second sample the test-retest
coefficients for the three dimensions were .60 for emotional exhaustion, .54 for
depersonalization, and .57 for personal accomplishment, for an interval of one year. For the
third sample the test-retest coefficients for the three dimensions were .74 for emotional
exhaustion, .72 for depersonalization, and .65 for personal accomplishment, for an eight
month interval. For the fourth sample the test-retest coefficients for the three dimensions were
.59 for emotional exhaustion, .50 for depersonalization, and .63 for personal accomplishment,
for a six month interval. For the fifth sample the test-retest coefficients for the three
dimensions were .75 for emotional exhaustion, .64 for depersonalization, and .62 for personal
accomplishment, for a three month interval. The mentioned values do not differ noticeably,
but for most of these five studies the highest test-retest correlation was for emotional
exhaustion. Longitudinal studies of the MBI-HSS have found a high degree of reliability
within each dimension which does not seem to get noticeably weaker from a period of one
month to one year. This stability is consistent with the MBI-HSS’s purpose of measuring a
lasting state (see APPENDIX B, page 5).