The purpose of this literature review is to identify nurses' perceptions of workplace stress or burnout, sources of occupational fatigue and identify potential methods of reducing stress.
Search Strategy
The Joanna Briggs Library, CINAHL and MEDLINE databases were accessed using the keywords stress
(MH "Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic") OR "secondary traumatic stress" OR (MH "Stress, Occupational") OR (MH "Stress, Physiological"), professional burnout, vicarious traumatisation, emotional labour, occupational stress (MH "Stress, Occupational") OR (MH "Stress Management") OR "occupational stress", ”nurses” OR (Registered Nurses). During the search, it was noted that some generic issues, such as workload were identified by both mental health …show more content…
There are four main elements to the presentation of a PICO question.
P=population (all registered/qualified nurses)
I=intervention (stress management tool)
C=comparison (standard stress policy)
O=outcome (lower levels of work related stress)
Not all studies identified the practice areas from which they gained the study sample from. However, where this was mentioned, the sample came from a wide range of practice settings and in one case, an entire teaching hospital. No consistency was available between studies in this case, but medical, community, surgical, paediatric, psychiatric and acute (including emergency departments and operating theatres) units were prominent.
Synthesis of Findings
To assist with synthesising the findings from the literature search, Coughlan et al (2007)’s step-by-step guide, in conjunction with the CASP (tool) were used.
This review identified a number of themes representative of Registered Nurses' stressors, sources of occupational fatigue and sources of burnout. The most common causes for work related stress revealed in the findings are
I. Workload
II. Staffing numbers and dealing with