Relationship between Job Stress and Burnout of Psychiatric Nurses: The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital

Psychiatric nurses are critical in caring for patients with mental health problems and many challenging problems. They are also likely to be tired because they have been in risky and stressful conditions for a long time. Thus, it is necessary to control job stress and burnout. This study examined the mediating influence of psychological capital in the relationship between job stress and burnout of psychiatric nurses.

The research method was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The study population comprised all psychiatric nurses working in three psychiatric hospitals in Tehran, Iran from 10 August to 15 September 2022. The study selected 170 psychiatric nurses working as samples through convenience sampling. The research tools were Job Stress Questionnaire of Nurses, Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ). After completing the questionnaires, Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and multiple regression by IBM SPSS 24.0 program.

The findings show a significant correlation between job stress, psychological capital, and burnout. The path coefficient of the direct effect of job stress on job burnout is significant (β = 0.524, P < 0.001). The path coefficient of the direct effect of psychological capital on job burnout is significant (β = 0.551, P < 0.05). The bootstrap result for this model was 0.49. The confidence interval’s lower and upper limits were calculated as 0.41 and 0.58, respectively.

These findings suggest that psychiatric nurses’ burnout can be decreased by implementing different healthcare programs to increase psychological capital. In general, according to the results of this research, it is suggested that the phenomena of occupational stress and burnout among nurses should be taken seriously. These variables can have destructive effects on the quality of nurses’ therapeutic performance. One of the suggestions that can be made is holding psychological workshops to improve self-efficacy, optimism, hope, flexibility and psychological capital among nurses in general.