Workload and Burnout Among Nurses of a Public Referral Psychiatric Hospital in Tehran, Iran: A Cross-Sectional Study

For many people who work in the nursing profession, a large part of their work involves emotional (psychological) and physical stress. The work environment of psychiatric hospitals imposes a high level of stress to staff due to dealing with patients with psychiatric disorders. Moreover, there is a negative attitude in the society towards patients with mental disorders and mental hospitals. Therefore, it is possible that psychiatric hospital nurses suffer more problems. In this study, workload and burnout have been investigated as two important factors affecting health among nurses working in a psychiatric hospital. 

In this cross-sectional study, a total sample of 82 nurses working in Iran psychiatric hospital was included and participated in the survey. Demographic information questionnaire, Maslach burnout questionnaire and NASA-TLX index were used for data collection.

The depersonalization subscale had the highest score in the burnout variable and the mental stress subscale had the highest score in the workload variable. The results of this study showed that there is a significant and positive relationship between workload and emotional fatigue as well as workload and depersonalization and also no correlation was found between workload and individual performance. 

This study shows that workload, emotional fatigue and depersonalization have positive correlation. In addition, the mental stress subscale had the highest score in the workload variable. Further attention to workload and burnout of the nurses in psychiatric hospitals is suggested and future large and multi-center studies on the topic are necessary.