Stress and burnout in forensic psychiatric nursing

The relevant literature suggests that all branches of the nursing profession are subject to high levels of stress and burnout. Forensic psychiatric nursing has been considered as an area of high risk, despite a paucity of literature in this area, particularly in Australia. This paper presents the findings of a research study undertaken with forensic nurses (n D 51) and designed to measure their level of stress and burnout. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Nursing Stress Scale (NSS) were the instruments used. The findings indicated that relatively few forensic nurses suffered from ‘high’ levels of burnout with considerably more forensic nurses recording ‘low’ levels of burnout. On the personal accomplishment subscale, only 17 per cent recorded a ‘high’ score. Interestingly the least reported stressor was lack of staff support for nursing activities which suggests that the amount of support received may account for lower than expected levels of stress.