This study was aimed to explore the occurrence of burnout among nurses in health and social institutions in Baranya County of Hungary, to reveal the connections between burnout and sociodemographic factors, and to learn its extent in different types of care. The survey was a one-off, representative sample with 805 questionnaires processed. The questionnaire was an internationally used and accepted standard paper designed for assessing burnout syndrome. The sample was given by nurses working in health and social care institutions in 2001. Intensive care nurses have the highest scores for burnout, followed by nurses in long-term care. Active ward nurses show the lowest scores for burnout. Burnout is twice as high among intensive care nurses (10.7%) than among long-term care nurses (3.6%), and the least is among active ward nurses (0.6%). Leaving one's job is closely connected with burnout (66%). Prevention could save health-care workers from burnout and leaving the job independently from nurses' sociodemographic factors.

The authors' aim is to bring to the attention of readers the inadequacies of care for people in Hungary who are terminally ill. They believe that both objective and subjective factors cause these inadequacies. Most of these factors arise from moral dilemmas that could be eased or even solved if ethics education had a much more prominent place in the nursing curriculum. Even if nurses would not become automatically better persons morally, a much wider knowledge of medical/nursing ethics could significantly improve nursing care both before and at the end of life. Although the article is also critical of the nursing care provided, it is not its purpose to make any generalizations. The study utilized selected passages from essays written by 76 practicing nurses on their personal experience of ethical dilemmas in their work environment, and a questionnaire administered to 250 students (registered nurses and health care students) studying for a college degree. This article is written by two authors who have formed an unusual alliance: a registered nurse with 29 years' experience of bedside nursing, but who is currently a teacher of nursing ethics at a local health college, and a lawyer turned bioethicist.

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