Purpose: Our health care system is in the midst of a nursing shortage crisis that is expected to intensify. Burnout is a serious problem that is closely related to nurses abandoning the profession. Burnout has a direct effect on physical and psychological health, and deterioration of nurse-patient relationships, nurse-peer relationships, and relationships of the nurse to his/her family and environment. A correlation between spirituality and coping ability has been consistently demonstrated. Serenity relates to the concept of spirituality. Serenity is defined as a spiritual experience of inner peace that is independent of external events that is learned and can be experienced by persons of all temperaments. There is little research examining the relationship of serenity to nurses' ability to cope with work related distress and burnout. The specific aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between serenity and burnout among nurses.

Methods: A sample of 550 RNs who are members of the Kappa Gamma Chapter, STTI, will be surveyed. Instruments include the Maslach Burnout Inventory which consists of 22 questions and records three dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low personal accomplishments; and the Serenity Scale, a 40 item self report summated scale that evaluates serenity status based on ten critical attributes of serenity. Standard descriptive and inferential statistics will be used to analyze data.

Results: Data collection and analysis is ongoing.

Conclusions and Implications: A demonstrated relationship between serenity and burnout among nurses will hold valuable implications for nursing education and nursing retention. Interventions aimed at revising nursing curriculum and clinical education to include the concept of serenity may increase nurses' ability to cope with work related distress, improve nursing relationships to patients, peers, and family, and decrease the number of nurses forced to leave the profession.