JOB STRESS, BURNOUT AND COPING STRATEGIES AMONG NURSES IN TERTIARY CARE HOSPITALS

Abstract

The present paper reviews the job stress, burnout and coping mechanisms of nurses in tertiary care hospitals. The World Health Organization estimates there are 29.8 million nurses in the world, and a shortage of around 6,000,000 has been greatly worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Burnout is viewed as an occupational health issue in high-acuity healthcare settings and is defined as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and diminished personal accomplishment via the Maslach Burnout Inventory. This paper reviews nurse burnout throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, synthesizing published data on the global prevalence of three dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion (36.1% during COVID-19, 33.45% overall); depersonalization (32.4% during COVID-19, 25.0% overall); and reduced personal accomplishment (33.3% during COVID-19, 33.49% overall), from a set of recent systematic reviews, meta-analyses and primary studies published between 2019 and 2026 and collated through an integrative review. It has been concluded that some of the key risk factors are excessive workload, high patient-nurse ratio, emotional labor, organizational culture deficiencies and pandemic related stressful situation. The review also reviews problem-focused, emotion-focused and organizational coping interventions, and problem-focused interventions are found to be the most protective against burnout. The paper discusses evidence-based recommendations for healthcare organizations, nursing practice, health policy, and future research on coping interventions (particularly technology-based coping interventions), based on the results of evidence-based recommendations from the evidence presented.