Is nursing a stressful job?

Question

Zippia Team · Accepted Answer

Yes, nursing is a stressful job. Most nurses can feel overwhelmed on a daily basis, especially if they work in large hospitals or emergency rooms. In these environments, lives often hang in the balance, and mistakes can cause deaths.

This weighs heavily on the nurse population as a whole, and the stress of it can cause anxiety, depression, and other mental issues.

The stress of the nursing profession has contributed to many nurses being unsatisfied with their jobs. According to a study from Pennsylvania's School of Nursing, nurses' unhappiness stems from stressful working conditions, staffing levels, and unsatisfactory benefits packages.

The COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the stress problem nurses normally have with their jobs. Nurses tend to be overworked, and the pandemic has exacerbated this issue and caused an almost unprecedented level of stress on the nurse population.

Another key factor in nurses' stress is burnout. This is a form of exhaustion caused by constantly feeling swamped with tasks and being overworked.

There are exceptions to this; of course, some nurses who work in certain medical environments, such as physician's offices, experience significantly lower stress levels than their colleagues in more fast-paced medical settings. However, in general, nursing is a very stressful profession.