Factors Contributing And Management Strategies For Stress And Burnout In Healthcare Professionals

Abstract

Background: Stress at workplace has an adverse impact not only on the employees in terms of health, well-being, and job dissatisfaction, but also affects the organization in terms of quality of output, absenteeism, and attrition which ultimately has detrimental financial implications. Health care professionals comprise of an important group that are majorly affected by workplace stress because of the nature of their work environment. Stress and burnout are a reality which nurses encounter and try to cope with especially in the Emergency Department (ED) so that they can provide optimal patient care. Nurses who work in ED are front line providers of immediate medical care needed to stabilize patients. With the known critical shortage of health workforce, nurses are over-loaded with work and often experience stress and burnout. The study aims: to determine the causes, effects and management strategies of stress and burnout among nurses working in the ED in hospitals in Makkah, KSA. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted. The sample consisted of seventy nurses from five different hospitals. A purposive sampling technique was used and data was analyzed using SPSS version 28.0. Data was collected using a structured q[1]uestionnaire developed from the International Stress Management Scale. Results: The highest reported cause of stress in this study was heavy workload (12.88%) and the least was no experience in handling the challenges of the department. The leading reported effect of stress was the development of musculoskeletal disorders such as joint and back pain (16.48%) and the least effect was contemplating quit- ting the profession (5.99%). The major management strategy used was humor (8.27%), while the least was crying out stress to feel relieved (2.18%). Conclusion: The major cause of stress and burnout among nurses in our study setting was heavy workload, which mostly results in joint and back pain. Moreover, humor was the prime management strategy for stress and burnout among nurses in the emergency department in the study setting. Thus more nurses should be employed and the working conditions of nurses improved to reduce the workload in the study hospitals.