Burnout: A Pandemic Needing Emergent Attention

Abstract

Dawn Carpenter, DNP, ACNP-BC, CCR, a critical care nurse and nurse practitioner, relates that nurses who experience high rates of moral distress, where conflicts arise around treatment goals that are contrary to the nurse's values, experience a high degree of burnout. A negative work environment can have a “contagion effect,”where burnout is the result of attitudes and negative conditions of the employment environment.