The present study examines the influences of role expectations, time pressure, personal caregiving experience, and conflict between family members of residents and nursing home staff on nursing staff burnout. Structural equation modeling is used for all analyses. The acute care focus of most previous healthcare research leaves the social relationships within long term care institutions largely unexamined. The existing literature is limited by small samples and samples which include only family members, excluding the perspective of staff members. The results of this project are significant in that the project is quantitative and comes from the unique perspective of professional caregivers working within a long term care environment. The use of role theory as the theoretical framework for development of both research questions and hypotheses contributes to sociological study by applying social theory to an understudied environment. Findings include the considerable influence of time pressure on both conflict with family members and workplace outcomes for staff. Conflict with family members increases level of nursing staff burnout and decreases level of nurse satisfaction, emphasizing that social interaction has a direct effect on workplace outcomes. The finding that perceived similarity of role expectations between staff and family members negatively influences level of conflict confirms that, despite their lack of organizational status, family members act as role senders within long term care facilities. Interestingly, nursing staff who have personal experience as family caregivers are more likely to report conflict with family members of residents, a result which necessitates further study.
