The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship of career choice motivation and social support on stress and burnout in nursing teachers.
To achieve this aim, the Nursing Teacher Stressor Scale, the Work Place Social Support Scale and the Japanese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) were administered to female nursing teachers at Colleges of Nursing in the Chugoku Region. The surveys were in questionnaire form.
There were 169 valid responses (a valid response rate of 55.2%). Career choice motivations included "employer's instruction" 43(25.4%), "suggestions from friends, etc" 39(23.1%), and "I wanted to become a teacher from the beginning" 5(3.0%). In the latter case, there was a high level of social support, a low level of stress, and a high level of "personal accomplishment" (p<.05).
On the other hand, the responses "circumstances and physical condition of the home", "avoiding the night shift" and "interest in education rather than in clinical work", corresponded to a high level of stress related to teacher qualities, and showed a high positive correlation with "emotional exhaustion" (r=.46, p<.001), and with "depersonalization" (r=.47, p<.001).
Based on these results, if a person became a nursing teacher out of a sense of compulsion or on the strong advice of others, there was a tendency to experience burnout.