Abstract
Purposes: Burnout is a challenge to health systems and clinical outcomes (Maslach & Leiter, 2016). Recently, negative impacts on clinical faculty and trainees have also been recognized (Low et al. 2019; Hammoudi, Soltani, Dalli, Alsarraj & Malki, 2023). While the US population increases, higher education struggles to meet a growing need for nurses over the next decade (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). Downward trends in nursing program enrollment following the Covid-19 pandemic, insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, and budget constraints (American Academy of Colleges of Nurses [AACN], 2023) have highlighted a need for explorations on how burnout may structurally impact the admission/matriculation in US Colleges/Schools of Nursing (CONs/SONs). The purposes of this survey were to explore perceptions among nurse leaders on burnout prevalence/manifestation among administrative staff in US CONs/SONs, to identify effective, emergent strategies for burnout mitigation, and to highlight the impact of the pandemic and ‘great resignation’ on this essential component of the CON/SON workforce.
Methods: Cross-sectional survey distributed to Associate Dean and Business Officer attendees of the 2023 AACN BONUS meeting (Spring 2023), and Organizational Leadership Network (OLN) members. Eight multiple choice and three narrative questions explored nurse leaders’ perceptions of burnout on administrative staff, their own leadership style, and burnout mitigation strategies they use for themselves and their employees. This report focuses on the multiple-choice responses; narrative data reported elsewhere.
Results: Most participants (81%) felt staff burnout is “somewhat of problem/ one of the challenges facing our CON/SON” (24%, 25/105), a “problem/notable” (30%, 31/105) or a “major challenge” (28%, 29/105). This resulted in “resignations” (57% 58/105), “reduced engagement with supervisor/peers at the individual level” (50%, 51/105), “reduced commitment to the university across teams” (52%, 53/105), “reduced productivity” across teams (32%, 33/105), and at the individual level (52%, 53/105). Half of our participants also noted “difficulty backfilling open positions” (55%, 56/105), “more absenteeism (sick calls/call-offs)” (36%, 37/105), and “more requests for leaves of absence (LOAs)” (36%, 37/105). Most lacked a “burnout mitigation strategy for staff” (80%, 84/105), some were “unsure” (13%, 14/105); only 7% (7/105) identified having a strategy in place. The majority of these nurse leaders also did not “participate in any burnout prevention/mitigation activities as part of (their) role at the CON/SON” (78%, 81/105).
Conclusions: Administrative staff are foundational to the success of a university’s CON/SON, yet burnout in this group remains under addressed. Lack of a burnout prevention/mitigation strategy across many of our respondents highlights an inadequate focus on the foundational staff resources of a CON/SON. Additionally, the systemic lack of participation in/role modeling of available CON/SON burnout prevention/mitigation activities as part of (their) role may indicate nurse leaders themselves lack the personal and professional support to manage their own wellbeing. Future explorations may consider whether this reflects a lack of knowledge, skills, and/or attitude toward such resources or other barriers to participation. To our knowledge, this is the largest national survey of nurse leaders in CONs/SONs to date and sheds light on this persistent threat to healthy work environments in academic nursing.
Notes
Reference list included in attached slide deck.
On-topic, published article by presenters:
Martinez-Hollingsworth, A., Goodolf, D., Martin, N., Kim, L., Saylor, J., Evans, J., Hines, A., & Jun, J. (2025). When Leaders Don’t Walk the Walk: A National Survey of Academic Nurse Leader Perceptions of Staff Burnout. Nursing Education Perspectives (Wolters Kluwer Health), 46(2), 79–84. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000001338
Sigma Membership
Gamma Tau at-Large
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Cross-Sectional
Research Approach
Quantitative Research
Keywords:
Professional Burnout, Nurse Leaders, Nurse Attitudes, Nursing Schools, Nursing Faculty, Academic Staff
Recommended Citation
Martinez-Hollingsworth, Adrienne S.; Kim, Linda Y.; Saylor, Jennifer L.; Evans, Jennifer; Goodolf, Dawn; Hines, Annette; Richards, Delsa; Martin, Nia; Gresham-Ryder, DaJanae; and Nwankpa, Uzo, "Burned-Out by Example: A National Survey of Academic Nurse Leaders’ Perceptions of Staff Burnout" (2026). Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE). 130.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/chwe/2024/presentations_2024/130
Conference Name
Creating Healthy Work Environments
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Washington, DC, USA
Conference Year
2024
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2026-03-05
Burned-Out by Example: A National Survey of Academic Nurse Leaders’ Perceptions of Staff Burnout
Washington, DC, USA
Purposes: Burnout is a challenge to health systems and clinical outcomes (Maslach & Leiter, 2016). Recently, negative impacts on clinical faculty and trainees have also been recognized (Low et al. 2019; Hammoudi, Soltani, Dalli, Alsarraj & Malki, 2023). While the US population increases, higher education struggles to meet a growing need for nurses over the next decade (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023). Downward trends in nursing program enrollment following the Covid-19 pandemic, insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, and budget constraints (American Academy of Colleges of Nurses [AACN], 2023) have highlighted a need for explorations on how burnout may structurally impact the admission/matriculation in US Colleges/Schools of Nursing (CONs/SONs). The purposes of this survey were to explore perceptions among nurse leaders on burnout prevalence/manifestation among administrative staff in US CONs/SONs, to identify effective, emergent strategies for burnout mitigation, and to highlight the impact of the pandemic and ‘great resignation’ on this essential component of the CON/SON workforce.
Methods: Cross-sectional survey distributed to Associate Dean and Business Officer attendees of the 2023 AACN BONUS meeting (Spring 2023), and Organizational Leadership Network (OLN) members. Eight multiple choice and three narrative questions explored nurse leaders’ perceptions of burnout on administrative staff, their own leadership style, and burnout mitigation strategies they use for themselves and their employees. This report focuses on the multiple-choice responses; narrative data reported elsewhere.
Results: Most participants (81%) felt staff burnout is “somewhat of problem/ one of the challenges facing our CON/SON” (24%, 25/105), a “problem/notable” (30%, 31/105) or a “major challenge” (28%, 29/105). This resulted in “resignations” (57% 58/105), “reduced engagement with supervisor/peers at the individual level” (50%, 51/105), “reduced commitment to the university across teams” (52%, 53/105), “reduced productivity” across teams (32%, 33/105), and at the individual level (52%, 53/105). Half of our participants also noted “difficulty backfilling open positions” (55%, 56/105), “more absenteeism (sick calls/call-offs)” (36%, 37/105), and “more requests for leaves of absence (LOAs)” (36%, 37/105). Most lacked a “burnout mitigation strategy for staff” (80%, 84/105), some were “unsure” (13%, 14/105); only 7% (7/105) identified having a strategy in place. The majority of these nurse leaders also did not “participate in any burnout prevention/mitigation activities as part of (their) role at the CON/SON” (78%, 81/105).
Conclusions: Administrative staff are foundational to the success of a university’s CON/SON, yet burnout in this group remains under addressed. Lack of a burnout prevention/mitigation strategy across many of our respondents highlights an inadequate focus on the foundational staff resources of a CON/SON. Additionally, the systemic lack of participation in/role modeling of available CON/SON burnout prevention/mitigation activities as part of (their) role may indicate nurse leaders themselves lack the personal and professional support to manage their own wellbeing. Future explorations may consider whether this reflects a lack of knowledge, skills, and/or attitude toward such resources or other barriers to participation. To our knowledge, this is the largest national survey of nurse leaders in CONs/SONs to date and sheds light on this persistent threat to healthy work environments in academic nursing.
Description
The purpose of this national survey among nurse leaders in US Colleges/Schools of Nursing was to explore perceptions of burnout prevalence/manifestation among their administrative staff, and to identify effective, emergent strategies for burnout mitigation. Our findings highlight the impact of the pandemic on this essential component of the CON/SON workforce.