A Multicenter Study into Burnout, Perceived Stress, Job Satisfaction, Coping Strategies, and General Health among Emergency Department Nursing Staff

Abstract

Burnout is a major problem among nurses working in emergency departments and is closely related to a high turnover of personnel, nursing errors, and patient dissatisfaction. The aims of this study were to estimate burnout, perceived stress, job satisfaction, coping and general health levels experienced by nurses working in emergency departments in Spain and to analyze the relationships between sociodemographic, occupational, and psychological variables and the occurrence of burnout syndrome among these professionals. A cross-sectional study was conducted in four emergency departments in Andalusia (Spain) from March to December 2016. The study sample was composed of n = 171 nurses. An ad hoc questionnaire was prepared to collect sociodemographic and work data, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Perceived Stress Scale, the Font–Roja Questionnaire, the Brief Cope Orientation to Problem Experience and the General Health Questionnaire were used. The prevalence of high burnout was 8.19%. The levels of perceived stress and job satisfaction were moderate. The most frequent clinical manifestations were social dysfunction and somatic symptoms, and problem-focused coping was the strategy most used by nurses. Lack of physical exercise, gender, years worked at an emergency department, anxiety, social dysfunction, and avoidance coping were significant predictors of the dimensions of burnout.

Professional Quality of Life and Perceived Stress in Health Professionals before COVID-19 in Spain: Primary and Hospital Care

“…This may be due to the high level of feminization of health professionals, which means that frontline care is mainly provided by women [ 25 ]. In addition, it may be influenced by the social role that women play with respect to caregiving [ 26 ]. Notwithstanding, the influence of gender on the phenomenon of compassion fatigue in the health care professions is not sufficiently explored and should be one of the areas for further study in the future.…”

“…Nevertheless, it is necessary to emphasize that it is very important to pay attention to the mental health situation of health professionals, especially in this time of pandemic [ 31 , 32 ]. Therefore, urgent and appropriate support is needed for all health workers worldwide who are working hard to control the outbreak of COVID-19 [ 33 ] and to establish early strategies that aim to prevent and treat indirect trauma [ 26 ]. This preventive approach is particularly important to avoid an increase in mental health problems among professionals at all levels [ 34 ].…”

Mediating effect of coping style on the relationship between clinical leadership and quality of work life among nurses in tertiary-level hospitals in China: a cross-sectional study

“…24 Active coping styles can enhance positive emotions, improve job satisfaction and increase employee retention rate. 25 26 Contrarily, individuals who use more passive coping styles tend to doubt their abilities and have worse mental health, therefore lowering their quality of life. 27 According to the transactional model of stress and coping proposed by Lazarus and Folkman in 1984, 28 an individual’s reaction to a stressful event is mediated by their subjective evaluation (ie, appraisal) of the environment and their process of coping with the event.…”

Published Research on Burnout in Nursing in Spain in the Last Decade: Bibliometric Analysis

“…Thus, this increase in production in recent years may respond to the prevalence of the syndrome in nursing, as shown by Álvarez et al [ 36 ], who estimated that 43.67% of nurses have the syndrome. Although prevalence of the burnout syndrome is high in nurses in Spain [ 37 , 38 ], from around 18% to 33% [ 39 ], these percentages are similar to other countries [ 32 , 33 ].…”

“…Álvarez, Mori and Gómez [ 36 ] also found a high percentage of nursing professionals (43.67%) with burnout. Several studies in the same country have also shown high levels of prevalence of burnout in nursing professionals [ 37 , 38 ]. Thus, the prevalence of burnout in Spanish nurses would be around 18% to 33%, showing the magnitude of the problem [ 39 ].…”