Nurses’ perceived demands and burnout level in the critical care units during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis

Background & Aim: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic challenged the physical and psychological well-being of critical care nurses because of the increasing number of infected patients, demands of care, and shortage of healthcare front-liners, particularly nurses. This study determined...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Samah Abdulwahed Ali
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Tehran University of Medical Sciences 2025-06-01
Series:Nursing Practice Today
Subjects:
Online Access:https://npt.tums.ac.ir/index.php/npt/article/view/3539
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849320864984596480
author Samah Abdulwahed Ali
author_facet Samah Abdulwahed Ali
author_sort Samah Abdulwahed Ali
collection DOAJ
description Background & Aim: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic challenged the physical and psychological well-being of critical care nurses because of the increasing number of infected patients, demands of care, and shortage of healthcare front-liners, particularly nurses. This study determined nurses’ perceived demands and the significant predictors of their burnout level in critical care units of tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Methods & Materials: This study used a cross-sectional research design. It was conducted from November to December 2021. Two hundred seventy nurses working in critical care units of tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia were surveyed using adopted questionnaires. Results: The findings of this study revealed that the nurses’ demands concerning safety, communication, and relationships between team members, and psycho-socio-emotional aspects were moderate, whereas their demands concerning organization and decision-making were slight. Furthermore, nurses’ levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization/ loss of empathy were high, and personal accomplishment was low, which indicates a high level of occupational burnout. Interestingly, the correlations between the dimensions of burnout and perceived demands were highly significant (p<0.001). Conclusion: The safety demands of critical care nurses significantly predicted emotional exhaustion due to an increased workload during COVID-19. The demands were significant predictors of depersonalization and personal accomplishment due to their perception that staff shortage, imbalanced workload, increasing care demand, and fatigue might have compromised the quality of patient care. Nurses experienced increased emotional distress and frustration in conveying their feelings of exhaustion, which led to high burnout levels during COVID-19.
format Article
id doaj-art-32cef1acd5ed4ae7b177ec32d86f9683
institution Kabale University
issn 2383-1154
2383-1162
language English
publishDate 2025-06-01
publisher Tehran University of Medical Sciences
record_format Article
series Nursing Practice Today
spelling doaj-art-32cef1acd5ed4ae7b177ec32d86f96832025-08-20T03:49:56ZengTehran University of Medical SciencesNursing Practice Today2383-11542383-11622025-06-01Nurses’ perceived demands and burnout level in the critical care units during the COVID-19 pandemic crisisSamah Abdulwahed Ali0Ain Shams University Background & Aim: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic challenged the physical and psychological well-being of critical care nurses because of the increasing number of infected patients, demands of care, and shortage of healthcare front-liners, particularly nurses. This study determined nurses’ perceived demands and the significant predictors of their burnout level in critical care units of tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Methods & Materials: This study used a cross-sectional research design. It was conducted from November to December 2021. Two hundred seventy nurses working in critical care units of tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia were surveyed using adopted questionnaires. Results: The findings of this study revealed that the nurses’ demands concerning safety, communication, and relationships between team members, and psycho-socio-emotional aspects were moderate, whereas their demands concerning organization and decision-making were slight. Furthermore, nurses’ levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization/ loss of empathy were high, and personal accomplishment was low, which indicates a high level of occupational burnout. Interestingly, the correlations between the dimensions of burnout and perceived demands were highly significant (p<0.001). Conclusion: The safety demands of critical care nurses significantly predicted emotional exhaustion due to an increased workload during COVID-19. The demands were significant predictors of depersonalization and personal accomplishment due to their perception that staff shortage, imbalanced workload, increasing care demand, and fatigue might have compromised the quality of patient care. Nurses experienced increased emotional distress and frustration in conveying their feelings of exhaustion, which led to high burnout levels during COVID-19. https://npt.tums.ac.ir/index.php/npt/article/view/3539COVID-19; burnout; safety; decision-making; organization; communication; psycho-socio-emotional needs
spellingShingle Samah Abdulwahed Ali
Nurses’ perceived demands and burnout level in the critical care units during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis
Nursing Practice Today
COVID-19; burnout; safety; decision-making; organization; communication; psycho-socio-emotional needs
title Nurses’ perceived demands and burnout level in the critical care units during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis
title_full Nurses’ perceived demands and burnout level in the critical care units during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis
title_fullStr Nurses’ perceived demands and burnout level in the critical care units during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis
title_full_unstemmed Nurses’ perceived demands and burnout level in the critical care units during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis
title_short Nurses’ perceived demands and burnout level in the critical care units during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis
title_sort nurses perceived demands and burnout level in the critical care units during the covid 19 pandemic crisis
topic COVID-19; burnout; safety; decision-making; organization; communication; psycho-socio-emotional needs
url https://npt.tums.ac.ir/index.php/npt/article/view/3539
work_keys_str_mv AT samahabdulwahedali nursesperceiveddemandsandburnoutlevelinthecriticalcareunitsduringthecovid19pandemiccrisis