Coping Strategies and Burnout among Nurses: The Moderating Role of Resilience

Abstract

Burnout is an increasingly critical issue particularly in high stress professions such as nursing. Understanding coping mechanisms and the ability to adapt emphasizes actionable insights for workplace wellbeing programs and the current study investigated resilience, coping strategies and burnout among nurses. A total of one hundred and twenty-four (124) nurses participated in the study and were selected and analyzed using cross sectional design and linear regression with Hayes Process Macro (4).  Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1981), Brief Coping Scale (Hamby et al, 2015) and Brief Resilience Scale (Smith et al, 2008) were used for data collection. Consistent with our hypothesized predictive relationship, the results showed that avoidance coping strategy significantly predicted burnout among nurses and resilience moderated the association between avoidance coping strategy and burnout syndrome. Consequently, it is essential to note that people with low resilience and avoidant coping strategy struggle to adapt to stress which can undermine their ability to adjust and recover. Therefore, training programs that can help nurses change negative thought patterns, develop emotional strength and flexibility and adopt more adaptive coping strategies should be encouraged in order to buffer the effects of burnout.