Empowerment, Resilience, and Burnout Among Nurses With Recovered COVID-19: A Multicountry Study

The pandemic of COVID-19 has placed enormous physical and psychological stress on healthcare workers, particularly nurses, resulting in a high level of burnout. To mitigate burnout, nurses who have recovered from COVID-19 need to be empowered and resilient; however, the relationship between empowerment, resilience, and burnout remains to be determined.

This study examines the relationships between psychological empowerment, resilience, and burnout in nurses who recovered from COVID-19 in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

A cross-sectional survey study.

Six hundred five nurses participated in the study, completing online questionnaires that measured psychological empowerment, resilience, and burnout. Data were analyzed using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to assess the relationships between these variables across the three countries.

Indonesian nurses reported the highest levels of resilience and empowerment, while Malaysian nurses had the highest burnout levels. Empowerment and resilience were negatively correlated with burnout across all countries. In Malaysia, psychological empowerment had a direct negative effect on burnout, whereas in Taiwan and Indonesia, the impact of empowerment on burnout was mediated by resilience.

Psychological empowerment and resilience are critical factors in reducing burnout among nurses who have recovered from COVID-19. Interventions to enhance these factors could help reduce burnout, with strategies tailored to different cultural and healthcare settings.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need for strategies to address nurse burnout. Key approaches include (1) creating a positive work environment by managing workloads, staffing, and resources; (2) enhancing empowerment and resilience through professional development, mentorship, and autonomy-building initiatives; and (3) implementing resilience-focused and burnout-reducing programs, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction and resilience training.