[The influence of professional values in the emergence of work stress and burn-out in newly graduated nurses].

The aim of this study is to evaluate the work importance values in nurse population in their first years of employment to analyse if they could change and if they could be considered as predictors of job stress and burn-out which developed during this period. A group of nurses has been analysed at the beginning of their employment and during the first three years concerning the work importance values measured with the Scala dei Valori Professionali (SVP), the job stress factors evaluated with the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and the burn-out measured with Maslach Burn-out Inventory MBI. The work importance values has changed during the first three years of employment. Although also the job situation has changed during this period increasing the stress, these changes are not related to a particular configuration of the work importance values. Nevertheless, the work importance scale has found to be related to a specific burn-out scale, that is emotional exhaustion. In details, the importance given to career development is related to an increase of emotional exhaustion while the importance given to social aspects decreases it. These results suggest that the work importance values evaluated at the beginning of the working period could be considered as predictors of specific burn-out aspects such as those related to emotional exhaustion.