Antecedents of Nurse Burnout During a Pandemic: Managerial Way Out

Abstract

The aim of this research is to uncover whether nurses’ fear of contracting Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in stress-related presenteeism and burnout, and whether perceived organisational support is effective in dealing with both nurses’ fear of contracting COVID-19 and its undesired consequences. For this purpose, a cross-sectional and descriptive research has been conducted. The data are collected from 513 nurses working in Ankara, Turkey, through a questionnaire survey. Independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance test and partial least squares structural equation modelling technique are employed to analyse the data. Findings indicate that nurses fear infection and experience stress-related presenteeism and burnout considerably. However, they perceive slightly inadequate level of organisational support. Fear of infection has resulted in stress-related presenteeism and burnout. Stress-related presenteeism has mediated the relationship between fear of infection and burnout. Perceived organisational support has negatively related to fear of infection and its negative consequences. In this research, to our knowledge, for the first time, the burnout, stress-related presenteeism, fear of infection and perceived organisational support levels of nurses are compared according to the pandemic-related criteria. Besides, the mediating role of nurses’ stress-related presenteeism between their fear of contracting COVID-19 and burnout is discovered.