Stress and Resilience in the Nursing Profession: Staff and Supervisor Perceptions, Assumptions and Responsibility for Health: A Generic Qualitative Study

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 identify and compare nurses’ work-related stress and the factors of resilience from the perspective of registered nurses and supervisors in clinical inpatient settings. 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 (DRKS00013482).