ABSTRACT
This chapter describes that helping and being helped, the area of how would-be helpers react when their offer of help is refused by a seemingly needy recipient received attention from researchers. It establishes the external validity of the model through assessing the spurning-burnout linkage in a sample of practicing nurses in Hong Kong. The chapter explores whether social support from one’s supervisor and one’s colleague could buffer the adverse effects of spurning on burnout, and examines the role of workload as a moderating factor and the extent to which social support could reduce the negative effects of being spurned. It shows that the spurning-burnout hypothesis in a sample of medical personnel, and in two samples of classroom teachers in Macau. Granted that support from a colleague is effective in reducing the negative effects of spurning on burnout, what needs to be examined is how such support is communicated among nurses.
