Burnout victims are five times more likely to finish a shift without completing necessary care, a bad sign for nursing homes, which report higher levels of burnout and job dissatisfaction than any other healthcare setting. 

That’s the message from University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing researchers, who in late July revealed results of a study involving 540 nursing homes in four large states.

Thirty percent of the nearly 700 direct-care registered nurses involved exhibited high levels of burnout, while 31% said they were dissatisfied with their job. Nearly three in four (72%) reported missing one or more necessary care tasks on their last shift due to lack of time or resources. 

RNs who were dissatisfied are 2.6 times more likely to leave necessary care undone.

“The data should raise a clarion call to health policy makers and those who own and manage nursing homes,” said Joseph Ouslander, M.D., the editor of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, which published study results online.