Nursing staff and supervisors perceptions on stress and resilience: a qualitative study

Madeleine Helaß^{1

2}, Anja Greinacher³, Melanie Genrich⁴, Andreas Müller⁴, Peter Angerer⁵, Harald Gündel⁶, Florian Junne⁷, Christoph Nikendei⁸, Imad Maatouk^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany. helass_m@ukw.de.
² Section of Psychosomatic Medicine, Psychotherapy and Psychooncology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Julius-Maximilian University Würzburg, Oberdürrbacher Str. 6, Würzburg, 97080, Germany. helass_m@ukw.de.
³ Clinical Psychology, Interaction and Psychotherapy Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, 68159, Germany.
⁴ Institute of Psychology, Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, 45141, Germany.
⁵ Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Centre for Health and Society, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
⁶ Clinic of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 23, Ulm, 89081, Germany.
⁷ Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Magdeburg, Leipziger Straße 44, Magdeburg, 39120, Germany.
⁸ Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany.
⁹ Section of Psychosomatic Medicine, Psychotherapy and Psychooncology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Julius-Maximilian University Würzburg, Oberdürrbacher Str. 6, Würzburg, 97080, Germany.

PMID: 39844142
PMCID: PMC11756110
DOI: 10.1186/s12912-025-02712-x

Nursing staff and supervisors perceptions on stress and resilience: a qualitative study

Madeleine Helaß et al. BMC Nurs. 2025.

. 2025 Jan 22;24(1):76.

doi: 10.1186/s12912-025-02712-x.

Authors

Madeleine Helaß^{1

2}, Anja Greinacher³, Melanie Genrich⁴, Andreas Müller⁴, Peter Angerer⁵, Harald Gündel⁶, Florian Junne⁷, Christoph Nikendei⁸, Imad Maatouk^{8

9}

Affiliations

¹ Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany. helass_m@ukw.de.
² Section of Psychosomatic Medicine, Psychotherapy and Psychooncology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Julius-Maximilian University Würzburg, Oberdürrbacher Str. 6, Würzburg, 97080, Germany. helass_m@ukw.de.
³ Clinical Psychology, Interaction and Psychotherapy Research, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, 68159, Germany.
⁴ Institute of Psychology, Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, 45141, Germany.
⁵ Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Centre for Health and Society, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany.
⁶ Clinic of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Ulm, Albert-Einstein-Allee 23, Ulm, 89081, Germany.
⁷ Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Magdeburg, Leipziger Straße 44, Magdeburg, 39120, Germany.
⁸ Department of General Internal Medicine and Psychosomatics, University Hospital Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, Heidelberg, 69120, Germany.
⁹ Section of Psychosomatic Medicine, Psychotherapy and Psychooncology, Department of Internal Medicine II, Julius-Maximilian University Würzburg, Oberdürrbacher Str. 6, Würzburg, 97080, Germany.

PMID: 39844142
PMCID: PMC11756110
DOI: 10.1186/s12912-025-02712-x

Abstract

Background: Supervisor-subordinate relationship is high relevant in dealing with work-related stress and providing a compassionate, high-quality, and safe nursing care while meeting the needs of the hospital. Our aim was to assess the predisposing risk and resilience factors of the stress of nursing staff as well as to explore the common and distinctive perceptions of these factors between nurses without a managerial position (nursing staff) and employees in a supervising position (nurse managers, ward nurses).

Design: Generic qualitative study using half-standardized interviews.

Methods: Fifty nurses and supervisors from different departments from a German hospital of maximum medical care participated in this study between August and November 2018. Nineteen face-to-face interviews and five focus groups were conducted. Transcripts were subjected to structured qualitative content analysis.

Results: Systematised in Lazarus's transactional model, nurses, and supervisors mentioned similar risk and resilience factors of stress. Disagreement in suggested responsibility for nurses' stress or health and an evaluation of implemented measures meeting the nurses' needs are discussed.

Conclusion: Nursing staff and supervisors should enforce exchange to reduce disagreements in perceptions and to improve mutual understanding. Furthermore, measures to meet nurses' needs to minimize stress and to improve collaboration and job satisfaction should be developed in close coordination with the target group. The focus should be placed on restructuring training and education programs with supplementation of self-responsibility promotion.

Trail registration: The study was registered with the German Register for Clinical Studies (DRKS 00013482) on 09 March 2018.

Keywords: JDR; Nurses; Qualitative approaches; Resiliencies; Stress; Supervisors; Transactional model.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Ethics approval was received in September 2018 from the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty in Heidelberg (S-005/2018). All participants provided written informed consent to participate and were able to withdraw their participation without any disadvantage. The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. Consent for publication: Not available. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

**Fig. 1**
Model of job stress and resilience in nursing. Note: Based on the job-demand and resources-model, integrated in the transactional model of Lazarus, a constellation of conditions for nurses emerged from our results. Congruent opinions of nurses and supervisors were not italicized. Divergent opinions are shown in italics

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

1. Holland P, Tham TL, Sheehan C, Cooper B. The impact of perceived workload on nurse satisfaction with work-life balance and intention to leave the occupation. Appl Nurs Res. 2019;49:70–6. - PubMed
1. Dall’Ora C, Ball J, Reinius M, Griffiths P. Burnout in nursing: a theoretical review. Hum Resour Health. 2020;18:1–17. - PMC - PubMed
1. Zaka A, Shamloo SE, Fiorente P, Tafuri A. COVID-19 pandemic as a watershed moment: a call for systematic psychological health care for frontline medical staff. London, England: SAGE Publications Sage UK; 2020. - PubMed
1. Huyghebaert T, Gillet N, Audusseau O, Fouquereau E. Perceived career opportunities, commitment to the supervisor, social isolation: their effects on nurses’ well-being and turnover. J Nurs Adm Manag. 2019;27(1):207–14. - PubMed
1. Bai JH, Ravindran V. Job stress among nurses. Indian J Continu Nurs Educ. 2019;20(2):92.

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources
- BioMed Central
- PubMed Central

Save citation to file

Email citation

Add to Collections

Add to My Bibliography

Your saved search

Create a file for external citation management software

Your RSS Feed

Nursing staff and supervisors perceptions on stress and resilience: a qualitative study

Affiliations

Nursing staff and supervisors perceptions on stress and resilience: a qualitative study

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources