Why renal nurses cope so well with their workplace stressors

Previous studies have found significant stressors experienced by nurses working in haemodialysis units yet renal nurses appear to report less burnout than other nurses.

This study aims to undertake an inductive process to better understand the stressors and the coping strategies used by renal nurses that may lead to resilience.

Sixteen haemodialysis nurses from a metropolitan Australian hospital and two satellite units participated in open-ended interviews. Data were analysed from a grounded theory methodology. Measures of burnout and resilience were also obtained.

Two major categories of stressors emerged. First, due to prolonged patient contact, family-like relationships developed that lead to the blurring of boundaries. Second, participants experienced discrimination from both patients and staff. Despite these stressors, the majority of participants reported low burnout and moderately high-to-high levels of resilience. The major coping strategy that appeared to promote resilience was emotional distancing, while emotional detachment appeared to promote burn-out.

Assisting nurses to use emotional distancing, rather than emotional detachment strategies to engender a sense of personal achievement may promote resilience.