Nursing is a challenging career with a lot of expectations that pile up, leading to stress and depression among nurses. A research study by Furihata et al. (2020) reveals that 47% of nurses suffer depression that relates to their workplace. The study also shows that most nurses cite the stressful nursing profession to be the root cause of depression among them. Dai et al. (2019) also reveal that 45% of nurses suffer from stress and depression and cite the workplace environment and culture as the source of the stressors. The study also reveals that the rate of stress is high among the nurses working in the emergency department, as well as those working in the Intensive Care United and Accident department.
In the field nursing literature, depression and anxiety is a common topic among researchers. In most cases, the blame is on the workplace policies that do not allow nurses space to have quality time with their families at home. In some situations also, some researchers claim that human resource managers need to understand the qualities nurses have and assess whether they match the expectation in the organization. In the healthcare sector, depression and stress among nurses is a big problem because it can lead to poor quality work by the nurse, which may translate to a reduction of the hospital’s performance. When nurses feel the pressure and develop fear and anxiety, frustration comes in, and therefore, they may not be able to perform to their best. Reduction in productivity is likely to reduce the rate of hospital performance. Also, depression and stress result in a high percentage of absenteeism among nurses. It implies that it piles the pressure among the remaining nurses, and this leads to poor performance.
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Many stressors lead to depression and anxiety among nurses in the hospital environment. On top of the list is the work-life balance. When a nurse is unable to have a good time at home with the family and friends, the stress at the workplace is likely to pile up, leading to anxiety and depression (Furihata et al., 2020). Another root cause of stress and depression among nurses is the workload that stems from the imbalance patient-nurses ratio in the healthcare setting. According to Batalla et al. (2019), most hospitals do not understand the benefit of balancing the patient-nurses ratio. The authors highlight that when a nurse handles a favorable number of patients in a day, they can get time to refresh and also relieve stress. In this sense, there are limited chances that such nurses can develop stress and anxiety. However, when the single nurse handles many patients, such a nurse is likely to get stressed up, and depression is inevitable in such cases (Batalla et al., 2019). It is, therefore, recommendable to have a better patient-nurse ratio as a way of reducing depression and stress among nurses in the healthcare setting.
The Interview Results
The interview focused on understanding the root cause of depression and stress among nurses. One of the stakeholders interviewed was a nurse administrator. Ther nurse administrator was in charge of the nursing department, and she was to ensure that the day-to-day operations within the department were running properly, and there was an order in the department. Also, she was in charge of creating an environment that was favorable for all nurses. Therefore, she was directly answerable to any incidents of absenteeism among nurses. In this sense, she had extensive knowledge of the root causes of depression and stress among nurses in the hospital.
While responding to the question about the root cause of depression and stress among nurses, the nurse administrator pinpointed the workload root cause of anxiety and depression among nurses. She claimed that when a nurse has too much to handle, stress comes in, and this leads to frustration, anxiety, and depression. The nurse administrator further claims that nurse shortage is another prime cause of stress and depression among nurses. From her viewpoint, when there are few nurses in a department, they must handle a lot of work; and this leads to stress and anxiety. The workplace environment is another root cause of depression and anxiety among nurses in the hospital. From the nurse administrator’s viewpoint, the hospital environment needs to develop a culture that accommodates all nurses. When a nurse feels that the workplace culture is discriminative, they tend to get stressed up, and this could lead to depression. Lastly, the mismatch between the skills and the nature of work a nurse is supposed to carry out is the last factor the nurse administrator gives a priority as a causative factor to stress and anxiety among nurses. She states that the nursing profession is stressful, but the pressure pile even more where a nurse is unable to develop the right skills to deliver as per the standard.
The graph below depicts nurse administrators' viewpoint concerning the root cause of stress and anxiety among nurses in the healthcare setting. In the graph, the horizontal axis depicts the root causes of stress and depression among nurses, while the vertical axis depicts the rating as given by the nurse administrator. From the bar graph, the workload is the most likely causative factor of stress and depression among nurses. The nature of the environment, including the culture, ranks second while competencies such as skills and adaptability, come third.
References
Batalla, V. R. D., Barrameda, A. L. N., Basal, J. M. S., Bathan, A. S. J., Bautista, J. E. G., Rebueno, M. C. D. R., & Macindo, J. R. B. (2018). Moderating effect of occupational stress on spirituality and depression of Registered Nurses in tertiary hospital: A structural equation model. Journal of Advanced Nursing , 75 (4), 772–782. doi: 10.1111/jan.13856
Dai, C., Qiu, H., Huang, Q., Hu, P., Hong, X., Tu, J., … Chen, F. (2019). The effect of night shift on sleep quality and depressive symptoms among Chinese nurses Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment , Volume 15 , 435–440. doi: 10.2147/ndt.s190689
Furihata, R., Saitoh, K., Suzuki, M., Jike, M., Kaneita, Y., Ohida, T., … Uchiyama, M. (2020). A composite measure of sleep health is associated with symptoms of depression among Japanese female hospital nurses. Comprehensive Psychiatry , 97 , 152151. doi: 10.1016/j.comppsych.2019.152151
