Stress, burnout and coping among nurses working on acute medical wards and in the community: A quantitative study.

Background: Psychological distress can cause burnout, which affects mental and physical well-being. It is important to identify factors associated with psychological distress and physical discomfort and how nurses deal with these problems.

Aim: The aim was to investigate distress, burnout and coping among community nurses (CN) and hospital nurses (HN).

Approach and methods: In this cross-sectional study, 409 nurses completed three questionnaires: Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) and Ways of Coping (WOC).

Findings: Participants younger than 40 demonstrated significantly more distress and burnout than those older than 40 years. Participants who had moderate and high distress on the PSS were significantly more at risk for experiencing personal, work-related and patient-related burnout. A significant positive correlation was found between distress and behavioural escape-avoidance, cognitive escape-avoidance and distancing. Significant positive correlations were also seen between all the subscales of the CBI and behavioural escape-avoidance, cognitive escape-avoidance and distancing. Positive significant correlation was also obtained between staff resources and distress and personal-related and work-related burnout. Negative correlation was demonstrated between staff resources and patient-related burnout. Participants with longer work experience were less likely to report moderate or high distress, and those who scored higher on personal burnout and behavioural escape-avoidance were more likely to have moderate or high distress.

Conclusion: The results of this study call for increased attention to the younger generation in the nursing profession. The results also validate the need to investigate further the correlation between distress, burnout and coping and how these issues might influence each other among nurses working in the community and hospitals. Findings should be taken with precaution, they do not describe in detail what underlying factors contribute to distress and discomfort found in this study, they do, however, indicate certain coping strategies nurses use to deal with distress and burnout.