Aim. The purpose of the paper was to show the scale of professional burnout among nurses working on oncology wards. Material and Methods. The research was conducted on a group of 100 nurses employed to work on the oncology wards of two hospitals in the Province of Lesser Poland. The research involved the use of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and an authorial questionnaire. Results. As many as 62% of diagnosed nurses were suffering from acute emotional exhaustion (EEX). 30% of respondents were found to have the highest level of depersonalization (DEP), while more than half (64%) of the nurses were experiencing a high sense of no personal accomplishment (PAR). The increase in the educational level related to the lower burnout coefficient on all MBI subscales (p < 0.05). More frequent participation in different forms of postgraduate learning significantly lowered the burnout coefficient on the ‘Emotional exhaustion’ and ‘Sense of no personal accomplishment’ subscales - EEX and DEP (p < 0.05) – the higher the satisfaction, the lower the burnout coefficient. The results on MBI subscales were not dependent on financial satisfaction (p > 0.05). Conclusions. The higher educational level and frequency of participation in postgraduate learning significantly lowers professional burnout.

Key words: professional burnout, nurses, oncology ward, MBI.