Perceived stress, self-compassion and job burnout in nurses: the moderating role of self-compassion

A network analysis of self-compassion and burnout in a sample of nurses

BACKGROUND

In the nursing profession, the concept of self-compassion has been associated with burnout. However, to date, the fine-grained relationships between different dimensions of self-compassion and symptoms of burnout have not been investigated. Network analysis provides a new avenue for exploring the fine-grained correlation paths of two related variables.

AIM

To analyse the nuanced associations between self-compassion and burnout using network analysis in a large cohort of Chinese nurses.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional multi-centre survey design study.

METHODS

Participants were recruited from 30 hospitals in China between April and May 2022. These nurses completed the Chinese Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (C-MBI-GS) and Self-Compassion Scale-Short Form (SCS-SF). Network analysis was performed to illustrate the complex nuanced relationships between self-compassion and burnout.

RESULTS

A total of 1467 nurses (age 32.2 [18-56] years; 89.9% were female) participated in the study. Nodes Mindfulness and Isolation had the highest centralities measured by strength. Nodes Mindfulness, reduced personal accomplishment and Isolation were the most negative and positive influential nodes that bridged self-compassion and burnout. There were no differences in terms of gender, age, professional title and job tenure in the structure or connectivity of the self-compassion and burnout network.

CONCLUSION

Different components of self-compassion were specifically associated with different dimensions of burnout in registered nurses. Among these, Mindfulness, Isolation and Reduced personal accomplishment were the three most important components of self-compassion for burnout symptoms.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No patient or public contribution.

IMPACT

Understanding the intricate connections between self-compassion and burnout will allow hospital administrators to prioritize the elements of Mindfulness and Isolation within self-compassion and the dimension of Reduced personal accomplishment within burnout when designing preventative measures and interventions aimed at reducing nurse burnout.

Predictors of Couple Burnout among Turkish Married Individuals

Couple burnout has been linked to several negative consequences for both individuals and couples. Identifying the factors that predict couple burnout is essential for developing effective interventions to prevent or lessen its detrimental impact on marital relationships. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate sociodemographic factors, relationship self-efficacy, happiness, and self-compassion as predictors of couple burnout in Turkish married individuals. A convenient sample of 401 married individuals completed a questionnaire that comprised a Personal Information Form, Couple Burnout Measure-Short Version, Relationship Self-Efficacy Scale, Self-Compassion Scale, and Single-Item Happiness Scale. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson's product-moment correlation analysis, linear multiple regression analysis, and relative importance analyses. The results of this study suggest that being women, having a higher number of offspring, and lower levels of relationship self-efficacy, self-compassion, and happiness were significant positive predictors of couple burnout among married individuals. The type of marriage, monthly income, and duration of marriage were not significant predictors of couple burnout. Moreover, the results of the relative importance analyses consistently demonstrated that happiness was the strongest predictor of couple burnout among married individuals. The research findings demonstrate the multidimensional nature of couple burnout and provide a more nuanced understanding of its predictive factors. These results have potential implications for the development of evidence-based and targeted interventions in relationship education programs.

Investigating the relationship between personality traits of hardiness and perfectionism with stress and psychosomatic symptoms: a cross-sectional study among nurses in Iran

BACKGROUND

Medical and health sector employees are always exposed to physical and psychological risk factors, which affects their personal, social and professional performance. It's important to explores the intricate interplay between personality traits, stress levels, and psychosomatic symptoms among nurses as one of the most sensitive jobs in society. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigating the relationship between the personality traits of hardiness and perfectionism with stress and psychosomatic symptoms among nurses.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted among 340 nurses in Mazandaran, Iran in 2022-2023. The instruments utilized to collect data included four questionnaires, namely Cubasa Hardiness Questionnaire, Tehran Multidimensional Perfectionism Questionnaire, Nursing Stress Questionnaire and Takata and Sakata Psychosomatic Questionnaire. The structural equations modeling was used for path analysis. All analyzes were done using SPSS V.25.0 and AMOS V.24.0 software.

RESULTS

The results of the present study revealed that the prevalence of psychosomatic symptoms and stress in nurses was high, and all path coefficients were significant, except for the paths of commitment to stress, challenge to psychosomatic symptoms, self-orientation to psychosomatic symptoms, and community-orientation to psychosomatic symptoms. The results showed that in the final model, the highest coefficient (0.807) is assigned to the other-oriented perfectionism path to psychosomatic symptoms. The weakest coefficient (-0.276) is related to the path of the hardiness component of the challenge to stress. The current research examined the fitting of the proposed model and the suitability of the proposed model was confirmed.

CONCLUSION

The results of the present study revealed that psychological factors such as personality traits of hardiness, and perfectionism are among the important and influencing parameters on occupational stress, and psychosomatic symptoms and as a result the efficiency and effectiveness of nurses in working environments. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to implement mitigating and control measures to reduce the mentioned risk factors among nurses in medical settings.

Effect of compassion fatigue on emotional labor in female nurses: Moderating effect of self-compassion

Emotional labor is common in nursing but may be affected by the mental state of nurses. This study explored the effect of compassion fatigue on emotional labor and whether self-compassion moderates this effect of compassion fatigue.

METHODS

A two-stage survey design with a convenience sample. Participants were female nursing staff recruited from emergency departments, intensive care units, ward nursing units, and outpatient departments of medical centers, regional hospitals, and district hospitals in Taiwan. A total of 300 questionnaire copies in each of the first and second stages were distributed, and 272 pairs of responses were retrieved (valid response rate = 91%). The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were tested, and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted with AMOS 21. The proposed hypotheses were verified using hierarchical regression conducted with SPSS version 25.0.

RESULTS

This study revealed that compassion fatigue positively predicted surface acting (β = 0.12, p < 0.05) and negatively predicted deep acting (β = -0.18, p < 0.01) and expression of genuine emotions (β = -0.31, p < 0.01). In addition, self-compassion negatively moderates the relationships between compassion fatigue and surface acting (β = -0.12, p < 0.05), and positively moderates the relationships between compassion fatigue and expression of genuine emotions (β = 0.15, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

To avoid excessive consumption of emotional resources, nurses with high compassion fatigue may employ surface acting by engaging in emotional labor without making an effort to adjust their feelings. Nurses need also be sympathized with, and such sympathy can come from hospitals, supervisors, colleagues, and, most crucially, the nurses themselves. Hospital executives should propose improvement strategies that can prevent the compassion fatigue on nurses, such as improving nurses' self-compassion.

Leveraging twitter data to understand nurses' emotion dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic

The nursing workforce is the largest discipline in healthcare and has been at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic response since the outbreak of COVID-19. However, the impact of COVID-19 on the nursing workforce is largely unknown as is the emotional burden experienced by nurses throughout the different waves of the pandemic. Conventional approaches often use survey question-based instruments to learn nurses' emotions, and may not reflect actual everyday emotions but the beliefs specific to survey questions. Social media has been increasingly used to express people's thoughts and feelings. This paper uses Twitter data to describe the emotional dynamics of registered nurse and student nurse groups residing in New South Wales in Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. A novel analysis framework that considered emotions, talking topics, the unfolding development of COVID-19, as well as government public health actions and significant events was utilised to detect the emotion dynamics of nurses and student nurses. The results found that the emotional dynamics of registered and student nurses were significantly correlated with the development of COVID-19 at different waves. Both groups also showed various emotional changes parallel to the scale of pandemic waves and corresponding public health responses. The results have potential applications such as to adjust the psychological and/or physical support extended to the nursing workforce. However, this study has several limitations that will be considered in the future study such as not validated in a healthcare professional group, small sample size, and possible bias in tweets.

Relationship between Self-Compassion and Uneasiness about the Professional Future among Dental Hygiene Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Purpose

To examine the self-compassion of dental hygiene students in Japan and the correlation between their self-compassion and uneasiness about their professional future.

Methods

This study was conducted from May to September 2021. Students were invited from three colleges and one university in Fukuoka Prefecture to take the survey. Participants provided information regarding demographic variables (e.g., gender and year of study) and answered six questions regarding feeling uneasy about one's future, matters of learning, and what might happen after graduation. Self-compassion was assessed using the Japanese short version of the self-compassion scale (SCS), with the positive- and negative-SCS subdomains. Resilience was measured using the bidimensional resilience scale with the subdomains of innate and acquired resilience. For the statistical analysis, participants were divided into the "yes" group, where members felt uneasy and the "no" group, where members did not feel uneasy.

Results

Data were obtained from 464 participants (response rate: 96.3%). The scores of total-, positive-, and negative-SCS were 36 (12-56), 18 (6-29), and 19 (6-30), respectively; 55.2% of students felt uneasy about their professional future. There was a statistically significant difference in scores for positive- and negative-SCS and innate resilience between the "yes" and "no" groups. Binomial logistic regression analysis revealed that when negative-SCS increased by one point, the risk of feeling uneasy about one's professional future was 1.12 times higher (95% confidence interval: 1.07-1.17) after adjusting for resilience and the answers to the remaining five questions.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that the negative factor of self-compassion is related to increasing the risk of feeling uneasy about one's professional future as a dental hygienist.

A National Survey of Stress and Burnout in Critical Care Nurses: A Prepandemic Study

BACKGROUND

Critical care nurses (CCNs) experience a higher level of stress and burnout than nurses in other specialties. Approximately 50% of CCNs are mildly stressed, and almost 20% are moderately stressed. Prolonged periods of stress can lead to burnout, which has been shown to have deleterious effects on quality and patient safety.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of burnout among a national sample of CCNs and the association with environmental factors.

METHODS

A national survey of CCNs working in the United States was implemented using an exploratory descriptive design. The anonymous survey was developed iteratively according to best practices of survey design. The survey included the Perceived Stress Scale and the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory tool. Pretesting and pilot testing were conducted with CCN specialists, and the survey was revised based on their feedback. An anonymous link was distributed to respondents using convenience sampling through social media and further disseminated via snowball sampling.

RESULTS

Two hundred seventy nurses responded to the survey. The mean (SD) Perceived Stress Scale score in the study population was 18.5 (6.4), indicating moderate stress. The mean (SD) Copenhagen Burnout Inventory score was 61.9 (16.5), indicating moderate burnout. Our study found that the overall health of the work environment was one of the most important factors associated with both stress and burnout.

CONCLUSIONS

This study has demonstrated the relationship between the health of the work environment and burnout among CCNs. It is imperative that health care organizations evaluate and implement strategies to optimize the health of the work environment to mitigate burnout and its negative sequelae on the nurse, patient, and system.

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic-related stress experienced by Australian nurses

Globally, the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare workers' mental health has been a major focus of recent research. However, Australian research involving nurses, particularly across the acute care sector, is limited. This cross-sectional research aimed to explore the impact of pandemic-related stress on psychological adjustment outcomes and potential protective factors for nurses (n = 767) working in the Australian acute care sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses completed an online questionnaire with psychometrically validated measures of pandemic-related stress, psychological adjustment outcomes (depression, anxiety, and subjective well-being), and protective factors (posttraumatic growth and self-compassion). Descriptive analyses revealed that pandemic-related stress was reported by 17.7% of the participants. Psychological adjustment outcome scores above normal for depression (27.5%) and anxiety (22.0%) were found, and 36.4% of the participants reported poor subjective well-being. Regression analyses suggest that pandemic-related stress predicted greater depression (B = 0.32, SE = 0.02, 95% confidence interval [0.28, 0.35]) and anxiety (B = 0.26, SE = 0.01, 95% confidence interval [0.24, 0.29]) and less subjective well-being (B = -0.14, SE = 0.01, 95% confidence interval [-0.16, -0.12]). Self-compassion weakened the relationship between pandemic-related stress and greater depression, however, exacerbated the relationship between pandemic-related stress and less subjective well-being. Posttraumatic growth reduced the negative relationship between pandemic-related stress and psychological adjustment outcomes. These findings will inform strategies to facilitate psychological resources that support nurses' psychological adjustment, enabling better pandemic preparedness at both an individual and organizational level.

Perceived stress and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in nurses: A moderated mediation model of maladaptive cognitive emotional regulation and psychological capital

Nurses often face a variety of work-related and life-related stresses that make them more prone to symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet the underlying mechanism of this association is poorly understood. To address this research gap, we investigated the mediating role of maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies in the relationship between perceived stress and PTSD symptoms, and explored whether psychological capital could moderate the direct or indirect effects between perceived stress and PTSD symptoms. Nurses (N = 723) completed a questionnaire about perceived stress, PTSD symptoms, maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and psychological capital. After controlling for gender, age and work department, perceived stress was positively correlated with PTSD symptoms. Maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies partially mediated this relationship. Psychological capital moderates the effects of perceived stress and maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies on PTSD symptoms. Specifically, the positive correlation between perceived stress and PTSD symptoms was stronger among nurses with low levels of psychological capital than among nurses with high levels of psychological capital. At the same time, the positive correlation between maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies and PTSD symptoms was stronger in nurses with a low level of psychological capital. Therefore, cognitive strategies and interventions oriented toward psychological capital may alleviate the PTSD symptoms of nurses in stressful situations.