Motives of choosing a profession and a level of nurses’ professional burnout

Introduction. Motives of human activity and endeavoring are very different. Every one of them has its results. Also, motives of choosing a
nursing as a profession by young people are different. Someone who would like to work as a nurse, only to earn money for a living, would have
enough very quickly. Resigning, this person would be surprised where are such mad people who want to work in such a way, come from.

Aim of the study. The aim of a work was answering the following questions: „what motives were reasons of choosing a job by questioned
nurses?” and „is there a relation between motives of a job choosing and a professional burnout?”.

Material and methods. Working nurses from Bydgoszcz and Elbląg (361) were a part of a research. For this research, a personal questionnaire
and a Maslach Burnout Inventory were used.
Results and conclusions. Received results confirm a relation between motives of a job choosing and a professional burnout. People who
have chosen „a will of helping the others” and „a need of being useful” as a motive, had a lower level of a professional burnout in global
aspect and in individual aspects. People who have chosen a nursing „because of lack of the other possibilities” were emotionally exhausted
much more. The ones who wanted to get „a possibility of a independent activity” got the higher results in depersonalization.
The most often picked motives of a profession choosing, were „a will of helping the others” and „a need of being useful”. There is a relation
between motives of a job choosing and a nurses’ professional burnout.

Nursing Topics 2010; 18 (2): 207-211