Perceived Stress and Burnout among Nursing Personnel Working in a Tertiary Care Hospital: a Cross-sectional Study in Eastern India

Purpose: Perceived stress and burnout are by-products of physiological and psychological burdens among nursing personnel. Physical and psychological stress is a perennial issue among the health care providers, especially among nurses in the resource constrained settings. With this endeavor, we have tried to examine the burden of perceived stress and burnout among the nurses in tertiary care settings. Along with the burden, we have also looked at a few new set of potential determinants for the aforementioned outcomes. Methodology: An institution-based cross-sectional study was carried out to assess the level of perceived stress, burnout amongst the nursing personnel working at various levels, in a tertiary care Hospital, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. The total enumeration sampling technique was used along with pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. After accounting for the pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, we arrived at a sample size of 401 to be interviewed for the study. Cohen perceived stress scale and Maslach’s Burnout Inventory, were used for assessing the perceived stress and burnout, respectively. Findings: The study revealed that stress [Low: 9.2%, Moderate: 87.3% and High: 3.5%], emotional exhaustion [Low: 20.4%, Moderate: 45.1% and High: 34.4%] and depersonalization [Low: 10%, Moderate: 26.7% and High: 63.3%] is prevalent among nurses in private tertiary care. They also had low perceived personal accomplishment [Low: 63.6%, Moderate: 22.9% and High: 13.3%]. 8 or more hours of duty per day [beta coefficient 1.36, 95% confidence interval 0.42 – 2.31] and 8 or more numbers of night duties per month [beta coefficient 1.76, 95% confidence interval 0.52 – 3.00] emerged as significant risk factors for stress when compared to 6 hours of duties per day and no night duties per month. Similarly, higher night duties [up to 7: beta coefficient 1.76, 95% confidence interval 0.52 – 3.00 and 8 or more: beta coefficient 1.6, 95% confidence interval 0.42 – 2.77] emerged as a significant risk factor for emotional exhaustion when compared to no night duties. Practical Implications: Our study findings provide an estimation of stress and burnout burden prevalence in tertiary care and associated factors that will be helpful in advocating policy changes and targeted interventions. The level of stress and burnout among nurses is increasing in tertiary care, therefore, policies should be formulated to identify and take appropriate preventive measures. The coping mechanisms should be promoted for health care providers, especially for the nursing personnel. This paper can pave a path to examine the relationship of life aspirations and their effect on burnout, which will be a valuable addition to the existing body of knowledge in the domain of burnout Originality: Having used cross-sectional study design and the robust method of linear regression analysis technique, our study found some novel results that will add valuable knowledge in furthering the understanding of burnout among the nurses and in general.