Workplace stressors, psychological well‐being, resilience, and caring behaviours of mental health nurses: A descriptive correlational study

Abstract

There is widespread recognition that workplace stress can have profound negative impacts on nurses’ well‐being and practice. Resilience is a process of positive adaptation to stress and adversity. This study aimed to describe mental health nurses’ most challenging workplace stressors, and their psychological well‐being, workplace resilience, and level of caring behaviours, explore the relationships between these factors, and describe differences in workplace resilience for sociodemographic characteristics. In a descriptive correlational study using convenience sampling, data were collected from N = 498 nurses working in mental health roles or settings in Victoria Australia via an online cross‐sectional survey. Key findings included weak to strong (r = 0.301 to r = 0.750) positive relationships between workplace resilience with psychological well‐being across all stressor categories (consumer/carer; colleague; organizational role; and organizational service). Psychological well‐being was moderately high, but lower for nurses indicating consumer/carer‐related stressors as their most stressful challenge. There were weak to moderate (r = 0.306 to r = 0.549) positive relationships between workplace resilience and psychological well‐being, and no relationship between resilience and caring behaviours. Workplace resilience was lower (P < 0.05) for less experienced nurses compared with those with >5 years’ experience, and lower for younger nurses compared with those aged ≥40 years. To improve their resilience and prevent psychological distress, there is prime opportunity to support nursing students with well‐being and resilience‐building strategies during their undergraduate education, and to support new graduates with similar programmes when they enter the workforce.

COVID‐19 anxiety among front‐line nurses: Predictive role of organisational support, personal resilience and social support

“…This result is in line with previous studies linking higher resilience in nurses to reduced burnout, compassion fatigue, anxiety, depression and psychological distress (Cooper et al, 2020;Mealer, Jones, & Meek, 2017). Higher resilience was also associated with enhanced outcomes in an individual, such as increased psychological health and mental well-being (Foster et al, 2020;Gao et al, 2017).…”

“…The mean scale scores were categorized into three groups: low resilience (1.00-2.99), moderate resilience (3.00-4.30), and high resilience (4.31-5.00 ;Smith et al, 2008). The scale demonstrated an outstanding predictive validity, as evidenced by its positive association with work performance, health and well-being (Foster, Roche, Giandinoto, & Furness, 2020), and an excellent reliability, with an internal consistency of 0.91 in previous research (Smith et al, 2008) and a Cronbach's alpha of 0.84 in the current study.…”

Nurses' influence on consumers' experience of safety in acute mental health units: A qualitative study

“…There are professional challenges and workforce issues faced by nurses in developing therapeutic relationships with consumers in acute units. The stressful nature of work in this setting can lead to a reduced capacity for caring (Foster, Roche, Giandinoto, & Furness, 2020). Similar to the findings of this study, Terry and Coffey (2019) found that consumers perceived acute unit nurses to be preoccupied with tasks, leaving no time to talk to consumers.…”

“…Enhancing safety for consumers goes beyond managing risk and requires an investment in nursing knowledge, skills and self‐care, as well as a review of the limitations posed by the dominant risk paradigm. Nurses' capacity to develop therapeutic relationships can be strengthened through education (Delaney, Shattell, & Johnson, 2017; Roviralta‐Vilella et al., 2019), clinical supervision (Delgado, Roche, Fethney, & Foster, 2020), and engagement in programmes that promote personal resilience (Foster et al., 2020). Nurses do not work in isolation in acute units, but as part of a multidisciplinary team.…”

‘Anyone can have a mental illness’: A qualitative inquiry of pre‐registration nursing students’ experiences of traditional mental health clinical placements

“…This is important as research indicates negative staff behaviours and workplace incivility are prominent sources of mental health workplace stress (Armstrong et al 2018; Foster et al . 2020), and nursing students can experience staff incivility during clinical placement (Zhu et al . 2019).…”