Work stress differentials between psychiatric and general nurses

The relationship between psychiatric nurses' perceived organizational support and job burnout: Mediating role of psychological capital

Background

Psychiatric nurses need to keep close contact with patients suffering from mental illness. Because of the special nature of their profession, there is an increasing incidence of job burnout among psychiatric nurses.

Aim

This study examined the relationship between psychiatric nurses' perceived organizational support, job burnout, and psychological capital. It also investigated the mediating role of psychological capital in the relationship between their perceived organizational support and job burnout.

Methods

A total of 916 psychiatric nurses were recruited from 6 grade-III mental facilities in Shandong Province using the stratified sampling approach. Their data were collected and examined using a general demographic data questionnaire, The Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Perceived Organizational Support Scale, and the Psychological Capital Questionnaire.

Results

The total score of job burnout was 53.71 ± 16.37. Specifically, 73.69% of the nurses had moderate to severe emotional exhaustion, 76.75% had moderate to severe job burnout pertaining to depersonalization, and 98.80% had moderate to severe job burnout pertaining to personal accomplishment. Spearman's correlation analysis showed that both psychological capital (r = -0.35, p < 0.01) and perceived organizational support (r = -0.31, p < 0.01) were adversely related to job burnout. Additionally, psychological capital somewhat mediated the relationship between perceived organizational support and job burnout. Its mediating impact accounted for 33.20% of the overall effect.

Conclusion

This study's participants had a moderate to severe level of job burnout. However, organizational support and psychological capital can be crucial in alleviating this problem among psychiatric nurses. Therefore, nursing managers and medical institutions should undertake timely and positive interventions to improve psychiatric nurses' mental health and prevent job burnout. While exploring the impact of organizational support and psychological capital on job burnout, future studies should consider other effective influencing factors, and the relationship between the different factors should be explored in depth. This would provide a basis for developing a job burnout prevention mechanism.

The correlation between occupational stress, coping strategies, and the levels of psychological distress among nurses working in mental health hospital in Jordan

PURPOSE

Psychiatric nurses encounter variety of demanding and stressful events such as dealing with aggressive patients, and hostile. This study purposed to assess workplace stress, coping strategies, and psychiatric distress among psychiatric nurses.

DESIGN AND METHODS

A descriptive explanatory design was employed. One hundred and nineteen psychiatric nurses were recruited in the study and data were collected in the period between June and September 2017.

FINDINGS

The results showed that participants experienced moderate level of occupational stress and psychiatric distress. In addition, they utilized different coping mechanism.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Stress management techniques program is very effective in helping psychiatric nurse to deal with occupational stress which might influence their wellbeing. Moreover, this program assists them to use more effective coping strategies as problem solving.

Challenges Encountered by Nurses Working in Acute Psychiatric Wards: A Qualitative Study in Iran

BACKGROUND

The provision of care to patients with psychiatric disorders and working in a challenging environment lead to many problems among psychiatric nurses. The aim of this study was to explore the challenges nurses faced while working in acute psychiatric wards.

DESIGN

A qualitative design using content analysis was used. Fifteen nurses working in psychiatric wards in hospitals affiliated to a university hospital in an urban area of Iran were chosen using a purposive sampling approach. Semi-structured interviews were used for data collection. An inductive content analysis method was used to analyse the collected data.

RESULTS

Four themes were developed based on the analysed data: "experiencing psycho-social challenges," "experiencing psychological challenges," "encountering catalysts causing challenges," and "employing various strategies for coping with challenges."

CONCLUSIONS

Given the importance of physical and mental well-being of nurses and the moral and professional responsibility of an organization to protect staff health, it is of prime importance to examine the inpatient psychiatric nurses' experiences to better understand them and hopefully use such knowledge so as to improve their work life.

Relationship between occupational stress and job burnout among rural-to-urban migrant workers in Dongguan, China: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES

In China, there have been an increasing number of migrant workers from rural to urban areas, and migrant workers have the highest incidence of occupational diseases. However, few studies have examined the impact of occupational stress on job burnout in these migrant workers. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and job burnout among migrant workers.

DESIGN

This study used a cross-sectional survey.

SETTING

This investigation was conducted in Dongguan city, Guangdong Province, China.

PARTICIPANTS

3806 migrant workers, aged 18-60 years, were randomly selected using multistage sampling procedures.

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES

Multistage sampling procedures were used to examine demographic characteristics, behaviour customs and job-related data. Hierarchical linear regression and logistic regression models were constructed to explore the relationship between occupational stress and burnout.

RESULTS

Demographics, behaviour customs and job-related characteristics significantly affected on burnout. After adjusting for the control variable, a high level of emotional exhaustion was associated with high role overload, high role insufficiency, high role boundary, high physical environment, high psychological strain, high physical strain, low role ambiguity, low responsibility and low vocational strain. A high level of depersonalisation was associated with high role overload, high role ambiguity, high role boundary, high interpersonal strain, high recreation, low physical environment and low social support. A low level of personal accomplishment was associated with high role boundary, high role insufficiency, low responsibility, low social support, low physical environment, low self-care and low interpersonal strain. Compared to the personal resources, the job strain and personal strain were more likely to explain the burnout of rural-to-urban migrant workers in our study.

CONCLUSIONS

The migrant workers have increased job burnouts in relation to occupational stress. Relieving occupational stress and maintaining an appropriate quantity and quality of work could be important measures for preventing job burnout among these workers.

Occupational stressors, burnout and coping strategies between hospital and community psychiatric nurses in a Dublin region

Burnout negatively impacts the delivery of mental health services. Psychiatric nurses face stressors that are distinct from other nursing specialities. The research was conducted in Ireland and captured a relatively large sample of respondents. The results compared the stressors, coping strategies and burnout levels between hospital and community-based psychiatric nurses. Occupational stress can negatively impact on the well-being of psychiatric nurses, which in turn can lead to poor client care. There is a dearth of published research conducted in Ireland that examines stress within the discipline. A between-groups study, undertaken in February 2011, investigated stressors, burnout and coping strategies between hospital and community-based psychiatric nurses in a Dublin region. Sixty-nine participants (8 males and 61 females), aged between 18 to 60 years voluntarily completed the Mental Health Professional Stress Scale, the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the PsychNurse Methods of Coping Scale. The findings revealed that nurses were operating in a moderately stressful environment. Stressors focused on organizational issues as opposed to client issues. The main stressors identified were lack of resources, workload and organizational structures/processes. Both groups reported average levels of emotional exhaustion, low levels of depersonalization and average levels of personal accomplishment. A Mann-Whitney U-test and Independent Samples t-test found significant differences between hospital and community-based nurses regarding depersonalization and personal accomplishment, respectively. Hospital nurses reported higher depersonalization scores, and community nurses had a greater sense of personal accomplishment. The personal accomplishment scores of hospital nurses were below mental health professional norms. No significant differences emerged regarding coping strategies. Avoidant coping strategies were favoured by both groups. It is recommended that interventions aimed at increasing personal accomplishment be implemented for both groups of nurses. An investigation of perceived job control and the use of social support would also be insightful.

Functions of social support and self-verification in association with loneliness, depression, and stress

This study investigated the influence of social support and self-verification on loneliness, depression, and stress among 477 college students. The authors propose and test a theoretical model using structural equation modeling. The results indicated empirical support for the model, with self-verification mediating the relation between social support and health outcomes. The results have implications for social support and self-verification research, which are discussed along with directions for future research and limitations of the study.

Stress and stressors in the clinical environment: a comparative study of fourth-year student nurses and newly qualified general nurses in Ireland

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To measure and compare the perceived levels of job-related stress and stressors of newly qualified nurses and fourth-year student nurses in the clinical environment and to explore the participants' views on stress and stressors.

BACKGROUND

Stress in the nursing workplace has significant consequences for the person, the patient and the organisation, such as psychological and physical health deterioration and impaired professional practice. To address this problem, stress and stressors need to be measured and identified.

DESIGN

This study used a cross-sectional survey design and self-reporting questionnaires to measure and compare levels of stress in both groups. Convenience sampling involved all newly qualified nurses (n = 120) and fourth-year student nurses (n = 128) in Dublin North-East region in Ireland.

METHODS

The instrument used was 'The Nursing Stress Scale' (Gray-Toft & Anderson 1981, Journal of Behavioral Assessment 3, 11-23). Descriptive, qualitative analysis was conducted on an open-ended question. Data were obtained from newly qualified nurses (n = 31) and fourth-year student nurses (n = 40) in six acute hospital sites.

RESULTS

Levels of perceived stress and stressors were high in both groups. Themes identified from the responses to the open question by both groups included excessive workload, difficult working relationships and unmet clinical learning needs. Student nurses also reported the combination of academic demands with clinical placement as a major stressor. There was no significant difference between each group.

CONCLUSION

Stress continues to be a problem for nurses in the clinical setting. Excessive workload requires urgent attention by hospital managers in view of widespread retention difficulties. Themes identified could provide a framework for possible interventions for improving the clinical environment for nurses.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

These results can help stakeholders in nurse education and practice to develop interventions to reduce stress for both groups and to ease the transition from student to graduate nurse.

Mental health nursing students differ from other nursing students: Some observations from a study on stress and coping

The study reported here is taken from a wider investigation into stress among preregistration nursing students, undertaken in the nursing department of a large university in northern England. British nursing is divided into four specialties or 'branches': adult, mental health, children's, and learning disability nursing, and the aim of the study was to explore interbranch differences among the students in terms of the sources of stress they identify, the levels of stress they experience, and the ways in which they cope. A cross-sectional survey of all nursing students on the department's roll (n = 1362), using a range of self-report measures bound together in a 'questionnaire pack', was undertaken. The questionnaire pack contained formal measures of sources of stress (Student Nurse Stress Index), stress (specifically, psychological distress) (General Health Questionnaire) and coping (Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations), as well as a set of questions that enabled data on a range of pertinent variables, including the nursing branch being pursued, to be collected. The findings revealed that mental health nurses were notably different from the other three branches in terms of the quantity and characteristics of the sources of stress they faced, the levels of stress they experienced, and the ways in which they coped. These differences were largely advantageous to the students' well-being and speculations are made as to whether the concept of 'hardiness'- especially its focus on a sense of being in control - plays a role in explaining the findings.