Exploring the Relationship between Access to Nature Views and Nurse Burnout

Sahar Mihandoust (Texas Tech University)

Background: Nurse burnout is the negative outcome of the hospitals' stressful environment and is a severe problem among nurses; it impacts absenteeism, nurse performance, and leads to medical errors. Physical design that provides connection to nature is found to be restorative and stress reducing for nurses. However, literature surrounding strategies to reduce nurse burnout mostly includes operational interventions, and there is a gap in literature when it comes to the relationship between physical design that enables connection to nature and nurse burnout. To address the aforementioned gap, this study will explore the relationship between visual access to nature in nurse work and break area, and nurse burnout.

Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between visual access to nature and nurse burnout, and to examine if higher levels of connection to nature influence nurse burnout, since they affect nurse stress. This study will investigate this question: What is the relationship between ease and frequency of access to nature in nurse's work and break area in hospital environment and nurse burnout?

Method: Data will be collected from MBI (Maslach burnout inventory), SACL (Stress/Arousal Adjective Checklist), NWI (nurse work index), and a self-report on nurse's demographics and their perception of their working environment from 60 nurses in 6 intensive care units in Covenant Health hospital. Quantitative data will be analyzed statistically to examine the relationship between connection to nature, nurse stress, and nurse burnout.

Expected Findings: The study is expected to: (1) better understand the relationship between connection to nature, nurse stress, and nurse burnout; (2) find a positive correlation between the level of access to nature views and the nurse burnout level. (3) develop a guideline of recommendations to ameliorate nurse burnout through physical design, which provides proper connection to nature.