Date of Award

Summer 2026

Abstract

Abstract

Background: Intensive care unit (ICU) nursing is prone to high levels of burnout, which poses concern for staff wellbeing, patient safety, and microsystem strain (Kerlin et al., 2020). Educational interventions may serve as a means of increasing awareness on the issue and reducing the effects of burnout, through promotion of evidence-based management strategies.

Local Problem: One ICU microsystem identified several key contributing factors to nurse burnout, including staffing shortages, limited resources, competing responsibilities within the macrosystem, and insufficient organizational support (Zhang et al., 2025). Baseline survey data of the population observed a prevalence of 50% “high” burnout profiles among the participants, indicating a need for intervention.

Methods: A quality improvement project was implemented using an educational PowerPoint presented to the microsystem during a monthly staff meeting. Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), which contains the dimensions of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment. The pre-intervention survey combined the MBI with additional demographics questions; perceived contributing factors and pre-existing management strategies were also inquired through open response format. A post-intervention survey was distributed, containing the same demographics and MBI questions but revised the response questions to include whether strategies from intervention were implemented and the participants’ perceived level of burnout.

 

Results: 37% of the microsystem that participated in the intervention. 50% of post-intervention survey participants reported implementing changes from the educational session. Post-intervention MBI scores revealed that all burnout profiles were “moderate”, compared to 50% of the participants exhibiting a “high” profile in initial stages. However, participant reported no perceived change in their level of burnout. Additionally, the qualitative data showed that organizational factors were a frequent theme contributing to burnout, including short staffing, lack of nurse involvement in management, and inadequate support.

Conclusion: The project demonstrated that a structured educational intervention is a practical, low-cost method for addressing burnout within a microsystem. While education alone may not be sufficient to effectively mitigate burnout, tailoring the approach to include a focus on systems-level components may offer more success for future initiatives. Other important modifications include increasing the follow up period and including a larger sample size to increase the accuracy of data representation.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

First Advisor

Deborah Simonton

Second Advisor

Jennifer Boulanger

College or School

CHHS

Department or Program

Direct Entry Master's of Nursing

Degree Name

Master of Science

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