Job Stress, Coping Strategies, and Burnout among Nursing Staffs in County General Hospitals in Kenya

The purposes of the study were to determine the relationship among job stress, coping strategies, and burnout. Sample consisted of 157 nursing staffs in county general hospitals in Kenya. The data were collected by using self-administered questionnaire including Nurse Burnout Questionnaire, Expanded Nursing Stress Scale, and Ways of Coping Questionnaire. Statistical procedures used for data analysis included descriptive analysis and Pearson correlation coefficient. The results showed that the level of burnout among the nursing staffs were in a low level. However, they reported moderate level of emotional exhaustion. They perceived a moderate level of job stress. For job stress nursing staffs reported moderate level of stress on workload, patients and their families, and death and dying. They reported moderate coping strategies. Nursing staffs used both problem focused and emotional focused coping strategies in a moderate level. The findings also revealed that job stress had a moderate positive significant relationship with burnout (r =.362, p less than.000). There was no relationship between coping strategies and burnout. Nurse Managers and hospital administrators can use findings of this study to improve nurse work environments by considering the issue of job stress and burnout. To minimize job stress and burnout, nurse managers should focus on decreasing workload by recruitment of more nurses and shift tasking of non-nursing duties.