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Methods: A total of 336 nurses (27 males and 309 females) who worked at 5 acute-care hospitals were asked to complete a questionnaire that was designed to determine the status of burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory:MBI) and automatic thoughts (Automatic Thoughts Questionnare-Revised).
Ethical considerations:The protocol of this study was approved by the Hiroshima University Ethics Committee, Japan. The objectives and procedures were explained in writing to the participants.
Results: First, in order to examine the effect by the combination of negative automatic thought and positive automatic thought, We considered "negative evaluation of the future" and "self-blame" as negative automatic thought and positive automatic thought, classified into the low group high group using the median about each of subscale, and conducted two-way ANOVA which make these groups a factor every three subscale of a burnout. The results revealed a significant interaction for “emotional exhaustion” (p < 0.05). Namely, it was confirmed that the higher the score for negative automatic thoughts, and the lower the score for positive automatic thoughts, the higher the score for emotional exhaustion. In relation to "depersonalization" and "personal accomplishment", although there was no significant interaction, a significant difference was found for the main effect. In order to examine a concrete factor affecting, We conducted multiple regression analysis. As a result, in "emotional exhaustion", and "depersonalization", "negative evaluation of the future" showed positive relationship and showed negative relationship by "positive automatic thought." Moreover, in the "personal accomplishment", "positive automatic thought" showed positive relationship.
Conclusion: That is, in decrease in a burnout, while putting power into decreasing "negative automatic thought", it is necessary to increase "positive automatic thought." It was suggested especially that decrease of "negative evaluation of the future" and the intervention in ""positive automatic thought" are important. This was mostly in agreement also with the result of Kendall (1992), and a possibility that this method could reduce "emotional exhaustion" used as the key point of a burnout was suggested.