The impact of psychiatric nurses’ psychological capital on their burnout and coping style

Background Nurses with a high level of psychological capital have the essential motivational and cognitive properties that can be used in any given work situation to protect them from work-related stress and burnout. Aim This study aims to examine the impact of psychiatric nurses’ psychological capital on their burnout and coping style. Participants and methods A descriptive correlational design was utilized in this study. This study was conducted at three psychiatric hospitals: El Azazi Hospital for mental illness, Banha Hospital for mental illness, and at the Psychiatric Department at Zagazig University Hospital. A simple, random sample composed of 139 nurses who are working at a previous mentioned setting was recruited for this study. Five tools were utilized in this study for data collection, sociodemographic data sheet, burnout scale, psychological capital questionnaire, brief coping inventory, and emotional approach coping scale. Results The present study revealed that the level of burnout was moderate among the studied nurses, more than half of them had low level of psychological capital, about half of them had low level of problems − focused coping and near half of them had a high level of emotion-focused coping. Conclusion On the basis of the finding of this study, it can be concluded that the burnout is a psychological problem among psychiatric nurses. Unfortunately, about one-half of the studied psychiatric nurses has moderate level of burnout and has low level of psychological capital. Also, about half of them utilize the emotion-focused coping style more frequently than problem-focused coping. When nurses have a high level of psychological capital, their level of burnout decreased. Recommendation Intervention programs for nurses should be carried out to enhance their level of psychological capital (self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience), improve their coping ability, and reduce their level of burnout are recommended.