Exploring the Relationship Between Perceived Visual Access to Nature and Nurse Burnout

Objective: This study aims to investigate the relationship between perceived visual access to nature views in nurse work and break environments and scores for subscales of Maslach Burnout Inventory among nurses. Background: Burnout is a severe problem among nurses. Literature shows a relationship between stress and burnout and between nature exposure and stress. However, the possible consequent relationship between connection to nature and nurse burnout needs further study. Methods: This cross-sectional study explored the relationship between the subscales (Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment [EE, DP, and PA]) of the Maslach Burnout Inventory as “outcome variables” and perception of view duration, frequency of exposure to views, view content and artwork content as “explanatory variables” in a subset regression model. The study model also included organizational stressors, environmental design factors, unit type, workload, and personal factors as control variables. Fifty-one nurses working in six units in a large tertiary care hospital participated in the study. Results: Percentage of perceived nature views and organizational stressors were the top two best predictors correlating with EE (37% of the EE variance; p <.05). Percentage of perceived nature views, organizational stressors, and environmental design were the top three predictors correlating with DP (43% of variance for DP; p <.05). No significant relationship was found between study variables and PA. Conclusions: The results of this study recommend perceiving nature views as an independent or integrated intervention to meditation and relaxation techniques. From a design standpoint, this study suggests that a unit and breakroom design with access to nature views could work as a consistent preventive intervention for burnout.