Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Mar 30:10:23333936231161127.
doi: 10.1177/23333936231161127. eCollection 2023 Jan-Dec.

Stressors Among Healthcare Workers: A Summative Content Analysis

Lesley C Rink  1 , Tolu O Oyesanya  1 , Kathryn C Adair  1   2 , Janice C Humphreys  1 , Susan G Silva  1 , John Bryan Sexton  1   2
Affiliations

Stressors Among Healthcare Workers: A Summative Content Analysis

Lesley C Rink et al. Glob Qual Nurs Res. .

Abstract

Healthcare workers are experiencing high stress and burnout, at rates up to 70%, hindering patient care. Studies often focus on stressors in a particular setting or within the context of the pandemic which limits understanding of a more comprehensive view of stressors experienced by healthcare workers. The purpose of this study was to assess healthcare workers' self-reported major stressors. Between June 2018 and April 2019, U.S. healthcare workers (N = 2,310) wrote answers to an open-ended question: "What are your biggest stressors as you look back over the last few weeks?" A summative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Healthcare workers described three types of stressors: work stressors (49% of total stressors), personal life stressors (32% of total stressors), and stressors that intersect work and personal life (19% of total stressors). Future research and clinical practice should consider the multi-faceted sources of stress.

Keywords: health personnel; nurses; occupational stress; physicians; professional burnout; psychological stress.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Drs Sexton and Adair reported receiving honoraria for grand rounds or other professional presentations on physician well-being for various health care organizations outside the submitted work.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Relationship among the themes. Note. Healthcare workers’ biggest most recent stressors include (a) work stressors, (b) personal life stressors, and the (c) intersection between work and personal life stressors. Work was the most frequently mentioned stressor thereby tipping the balance towards work. There were also issues that traverse both work and personal life that include but are not limited to financial stressors and work-life balance.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Nurses Foundation. (2022). COVID-19 impact assessment survey—The second year. American Nurses Association Enterprise. https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/work-environment/health-saf...
    1. Beck C. T. (2009). Critiquing qualitative research. AORN Journal, 90(4), 543–554. 10.1016/j.aorn.2008.12.023 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bradshaw C., Atkinson S., Doody O. (2017). Employing a qualitative description approach in health care research. Global Qualitative Nursing Research, 4, 1–8. 10.1177/2333393617742282 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bronfenbrenner U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. The American Psychologist, 32(7), 513–531. 10.1037/0003-066X.32.7.513 - DOI
    1. Brooks Carthon J. M., Hatfield L., Brom H., Houton M., Kelly-Hellyer E., Schlak A., Aiken L. H. (2021). System-level improvements in work environments lead to lower nurse burnout and higher patient satisfaction. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 36(1), 7–13. 10.1097/NCQ.0000000000000475 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources