The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction in the Relationship between Depression and Job Burnout among Nurses of Hospitals Affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences

Nurses are more likely to suffer from job burnout than other employees which is attributable to the nature of nursing professional stress, depression and low job satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of job satisfaction in the relationship between depression and job burnout among nurses of hospitals affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences.

The present study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. In this research, 300 nurses of hospitals affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in Tehran from May to September 2012 were selected by the convience sampling method. Data were collected using a populationcognitive questionnaire, job satisfaction questionnaire, depression questionnaire, and burnout questionnaire. To test the presuppositions of statistical tests and test hypothesis tests, variance analysis, correlation coefficient and path analysis fitting indices using AMOS software version 22 were used to measure the significance of the intermediate variable effect of Sobel test.

The mean (SD) age of participants in this study was 34.4 (11.3). Increased depression score with a mean (SD) of 55.6 (11.4) was associated with increased job burnout with a mean (SD) of 88.9 (21.4) and decreased job satisfaction with the mean (SD) of 40.7 (12.6). Increased job satisfaction was associated with decreased job burnout, P<0.001. Job satisfaction had a mediator role in the relationship between depression and burnout (P<0.05), and with a reverse effect of depression on job satisfaction (B=-0.23, P<0.001) job burnout decreased.

The study showed that increased depression was associated with increased job burnout and decreased job satisfaction. In addition, increased job satisfaction was associated with decreased job burnout. Job satisfaction had a mediator role in the relationship between depression and burnout, and with the reverse effect of depression on job satisfaction, job burnout decreased.