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 May 8:16:817-831.
doi: 10.2147/RMHP.S391336. eCollection 2023.

Fatigue as a Cause of Professional Dissatisfaction Among Chinese Nurses in Intensive Care Unit During COVID-19 Pandemic

Tao Sun #  1 , Xian-Hong Huang #  1 , Shu-E Zhang #  2 , Hong-Yan Yin  3 , Qing-Lin Li  2 , Lei Gao  2 , Ye Li  2 , Li Li  4 , Bing Cao  5 , Jin-Hong Yang  6 , Bei Liu  7
Affiliations

Fatigue as a Cause of Professional Dissatisfaction Among Chinese Nurses in Intensive Care Unit During COVID-19 Pandemic

Tao Sun et al. Risk Manag Healthc Policy. .

Abstract

Aim: To clarify the mediating role of burnout and the moderating role of turnover intention in the association between fatigue and job satisfaction among Chinese nurses in intensive care units (ICU) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of fifteen provinces in China was conducted, using an online questionnaire, from December 2020 to January 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 374 ICU nurses (effective response rate: 71.37%) provided sufficient responses. Sociodemographic factors, job demographic factors, fatigue, burnout, job satisfaction, and turnover intention were assessed using questionnaires. General linear modeling (GLM), hierarchical linear regression (HLR) analysis, and generalized additive modeling (GAM) were performed to examine all the considered research hypotheses.

Results: Fatigue was found to be negatively and significantly associated with job satisfaction. Moreover, burnout played a partial mediating role and turnover intention played a moderating role in the relationship between fatigue and job satisfaction.

Conclusion: Over time, a state of physical and mental exhaustion and work weariness among Chinese ICU nurses potentially results in job burnout and consequently promotes the level of job dissatisfaction. The results also found that turnover intention played a moderating role in the relationship between burnout and job satisfaction. Specific policies could be considered to eliminate nurses' fatigue and negative attitudes during times of public health emergencies.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; ICU nurses; burnout; fatigue; job satisfaction; turnover intention.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual model.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Moderating effect of turnover intention on the relationship between burnout and job satisfaction.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Broddadóttir E, Flóvenz S, Gylfason HF, et al. ”I’m So Tired”: fatigue as a persistent physical symptom among working people experiencing exhaustion disorder. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18:16. doi: 10.3390/ijerph18168657 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Watkins SL, Shannon MA, Hurtado DA, Shea SA, Bowles NP. Interactions between home, work, and sleep among firefighters. Am J Ind Med. 2021;64(2):137–148. doi: 10.1002/ajim.23194 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Franzen A, Wöhner F. Fatigue during the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence of social distancing adherence from a panel study of young adults in Switzerland. PLoS One. 2021;16(12):e0261276. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0261276 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anvekar AP, Nathan EA, Doherty DA, Patole SK. Effect of shift work on fatigue and sleep in neonatal registrars. PLoS One. 2021;16(1):e0245428. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245428 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sprajcer M, Thomas MJW, Sargent C, et al. How effective are Fatigue Risk Management Systems (FRMS)? A review. Accid Anal Prev. 2022;165:106398. doi: 10.1016/j.aap.2021.106398 - DOI - PMC - PubMed