Effect of humour on burnout and resiliency of nurses

Introduction: Nursing is among most stressful jobs and a common syndrome is job burnout in nurses caused by stress. Enhancing coping capacity is an effective factor in dealing with stresses. Thus it seems significant to study the effect of sense of humour on job burnout and nurses&rsquo; resiliency. Objective: The present study was conducted to determie the relationship between severity of nurses&rsquo; burnout and tolerance and their sense of humor. Methods: This correlational descrirtive study was conducted on 60 employed nurses in hospitals of Ghazvin province and targeted sampling method was used. Measuring instruments used included Sense of Humor Questionnaire (SHQ) and job burnout of Jackson and Maslach and resiliency of Kanner and Davidson(CD-RISC). Data were analyzed using One-way variance analysis test. Results: Study findings suggested that burnout severity was less in nurses with high sense of humour than nurses with low sense of humor (P<0.029). Frequency of job burnout in nurses with high sense of humor was less than nurses with low sense of humor (P<0.0045) and also, resiliency of nurses with high sense of humour was more than nurses with low sense of humor (P<0.0001). Conclusion: Sense of humor and applying it when dealing with stress can lead to decrease in job burnout and increase coping capacity in nurses.It is recommended to consider interventional studies and educating nurses on sense of humour in nursing program.