Korean Journal of Health & Nursing (Korean J Health Nurs, KJHN)
Open Access, Peer Reviewed
pISSN 3058-4744
eISSN 3058-5643
Original Article

Burnout, Depression, and Job Stress Among Nurses Caring for Do-Not-Resuscitate Patients

1Staff Nurse, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, Daegu, Republic of Korea
2Associate Professor, Department of Nursing, Kyungnam University, Changwon, Republic of Korea
3Head Nurse, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, Daegu, Republic of Korea

Correspondence to Youngju Jee, E-mail: jeeyoungju@kyungnam.ac.kr

Korean J Health Nurs 2025;2(1):53-61. https://doi.org/10.12972/kjhn.2025.2.1.6
Received on May 21, 2025, Revised on June 24, 2025, Accepted on June 27, 2025, Published on June 30, 2025.
© Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the relationship among psychological stress, burnout, and depression in nurses, and contribute to the development of nursing guidelines for the care of Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) patients and their families. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to nurse at a hospital from mid-August to the end of August 2024. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS WIN 23.0 program for descriptive statistics, frequencies, and percentages. Pearson’s correlation coefficient and t-test were used to analyze the correlation, and one-way ANOVA along with post hoc testing was used to assess group differences. Results: The participants’mean scores were 58.52±13.23, 26.06±2.93, and 76.40±20.49 for burnout, depression, and job stress, respectively. Burnout showed significant positive correlations with depression (r=.43, p<.001) and job stress (r=.58, p<.001). Additionally, depression was significantly positively correlated with job stress (r=.19, p=.038). Conclusion: Nurses caring for DNR patients experience stress, depression, and burnout in a linked manner. Therefore, high-quality nursing guidelines for DNR patient care that considers the physical and psychological aspects of nurses who experience difficulties in nursing must be developed and applied.

Keywords

Burnout, Depression, DNR (Do-Not-Resuscitate), Job Stress, Nurse