Occupational Stress and the Quality of Life of Nurses in Infectious Disease Departments in China: The Mediating Role of Psychological Resilience

Abstract

AimWe aim to explore the impact of occupational stress on the quality of life of nurses in infectious disease departments and to explore the mediating role of psychological resilience on this impact.BackgroundSudden public health events and the prevalence of infectious diseases give nurses in infectious disease departments a heavy task load and high occupational stress, which can affect their quality of life, and which is closely related to the quality of clinical care they provide. There are few existing studies on occupational stress, psychological resilience, and the quality of life of nurses in infectious disease departments.MethodsWe collected data from infectious-disease-specialized hospitals or infectious disease departments of general hospitals in China. In total 1,536 nurses completed questionnaires: the Effort-Reward Imbalance Questionnaire, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Scale. We use a structural equation model to test the mediating role of the psychological resilience in the relationship between occupational stress and quality of life.ResultsAmong 1,536 participants, 88.2% experienced an effort-reward imbalance. The average scores for psychological resilience and quality of life were 56.06 (SD = 14.19) and 51.80 (SD = 8.23), respectively. Our results show that occupational stress is negatively correlated with psychological resilience (r = −0.28, p < 0.01) and quality of life (r = −0.44, p < 0.01). In addition, we find that psychological resilience is positively correlated with quality of life (r = 0.55, p < 0.01) and that the indirect effect of occupational stress on quality of life through psychological resilience is significant (β = −0.036, 95% CI: 0.027 to 0.426), indicating at least a partial mediating role of psychological resilience.ConclusionA high proportion of nurses in infectious disease departments felt that their jobs’ effort-reward imbalance was high. These nurses’ scores for psychological resilience were in the middle level among Chinese people generally, but their quality of life was lower than the Chinese norm. We conclude that occupational stress has an important impact on their quality of life, and psychological resilience plays a partial mediating role on this impact.Implications for Nursing ManagementHospital managers can benefit from paying attention to the occupational stress of nurses and helping to improve the quality of life of nurses by alleviating this occupational stress and improving psychological resilience.

Workplace Wellbeing and Quality of Life Perceived by Portuguese Nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Protective Factors and Stressors

“…This is in line with previous studies, such as the one conducted by Yan et al [ 53 ] in hospitals specialized in infectious diseases and in infectious disease departments at general hospitals in China from January to July 2021 (during the COVID-19 pandemic), which found that occupational stress had a major impact on nurses’ QoL. This same study [ 53 ] also found that psychological resilience played a partial role in that impact, which is also consistent with our findings. In fact, our study and the one by Yan et al present similar findings despite having been conducted in two substantially different geographical and cultural settings (Portugal and China).…”

“…Regarding nurses’ QoL during the COVID-19 pandemic, our study identified stress as a factor strongly associated with lower QoL. This is in line with previous studies, such as the one conducted by Yan et al [ 53 ] in hospitals specialized in infectious diseases and in infectious disease departments at general hospitals in China from January to July 2021 (during the COVID-19 pandemic), which found that occupational stress had a major impact on nurses’ QoL. This same study [ 53 ] also found that psychological resilience played a partial role in that impact, which is also consistent with our findings.…”

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“…Moreover, when the stress is high, if an individual’s needs, capabilities or resources cannot be excluded or loaded, it will lead to an increase in employee’s job burnout, 90 and a decrease in quality of life. 91 Furthermore, these results showed that developing mutual trust and interdependence among group members through the leadership of manager (especially in case management support such as individualized care, encouragement, and inspiration) or promoting communication and coordination through group member interactions can reduce work stress of subordinates, which in turn will reduce the job burnout of police officers.…”

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“…Resilience is a multidimensional construct containing three dimensions: strength, optimism, and tenacity (Chen & Liu, 2007). With the rise of positive psychology, psychological resilience has become a hotspot in psychology and nursing research (Yan et al, 2022). Many scholars have confirmed that resilient nurses are better at overcoming obstacles, navigating uncertainties, and withstanding adverse conditions, which enhances their effectiveness and leads to greater success (Jiménez-Fernández et al, 2022).…”