The Relationship Between Occupational Stress, Job Burnout and Quality of Life among Surgical nurses in Xinjiang, China

Abstract Background: Nursing is a high-risk occupation that involves exposure to stress. The physical and mental health of nurses is directly related to the quality of medical services, so the quality of life of nurses cannot be ignored. Methods: This study adopted the cluster random sampling method and carried out a questionnaire survey among 488 surgical nurses from five affiliated hospitals of Xinjiang medical university from May 2019 to September 2019. The study analyzed the relationship between occupational stress, job burnout and quality of life. The Effort-Reward Imbalance questionnaire(ERI), Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey(MBI-GS), and the 36-item Short Form Health Survey(SF-36) were used to evaluate occupational stress, job burnout and quality of life among surgical nurses. Results The results revealed that the quality of life score among surgical nurses was not high, and differences were observed in the quality of life score of patients according to gender, age, title, and frequency of night shifts (P < 0.05). Occupational stress and job burnout are risk factors for quality of life, and the interaction between high stress and high burnout seriously reduces quality of life. The structural equation model revealed that occupational stress and job burnout have a direct impact on life quality, occupational stress has a direct impact on job burnout, and job burnout is the mediating factor of occupational stress on life quality.Conclusion Occupational stress and job burnout affect quality of life, and their interaction also affects quality of life. Higher levels of stress and burnout were associated with lower quality of life scores.