Effect of Balint group training on burnout and quality of work life among intensive care nurses: A randomized controlled trial

Abstract Background Burnout and low quality of work life were linked to poor professional conduct, increased risk of medical errors and suicide for intensive care nurses. This study was to examine whether the Balint group training intervention could relieve burnout and improve the quality of work life for ICU nurses. Methods We conducted a randomized controlled trial at five ICUs in Guangdong province, China. Totally 152 nurses were randomly assigned to the Balint group with 8 weekly 1.5 -h training sessions and the control group with no interventions. The outcomes were assessed at pre-, mid- and post-training intervention with the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and Quality of Nursing Work Life Scale (QNWLS) questionnaires. Results At pre-training intervention, the scores of QNWLS and MBI for both groups ranged in 131.63–133.43 and 69.96–70.07, respectively, suggesting the high burnout and low quality of work life for ICU nurses. At mid-intervention, no significant differences were observed. At post-training intervention, the scores of QNWLS for the intervention group (141.93 ± 13.61) was significantly higher than the control group (132.39 ± 10.66), which was mainly contributed by the improvement in the work life-home life and work world dimensions. For MBI, the burnout for intervention group (58.33 ± 7.38) was significantly lower than the control group (70.50 ± 7.01) at post-training intervention, which was contributed by the improvement in the depersonalization and emotional exhaustion dimensions. Limitation the ‘healthy worker effect’ cannot be excluded. Conclusion Balint group training was an effective way to relieve burnout and improve the quality of work life for ICU nurses.