Resilience, Burnout and Wellbeing of Nurses during the Third Wave of COVID-19 in Cyprus

Burnout is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion, and when experienced among healthcare workers, it is a sign of major concern for the health system. COVID-19 has induced a plethora of negative consequences, like extra workload on nurses, emotional stress, risk of infection to close family, and factors leading to burnout.

This study aimed to measure the prevalence of burnout and resilience among nurses in Cyprus.

An online questionnaire-based survey using Copenhagen Burnout Inventory and the Conor Davidson scale was carried out among all registered nurses in Cyprus. Burnout and resilience were defined at a cut-off score of 50 for each domain.

The prevalence of overall burnout was 54.26%. No significant difference was identified between the different demographics collected and burnout prevalence. Burnout was lower in the category of patient-related burnout (32.77%) compared to personal or work-related burnout (68.30% and 66.81%, respectively).

There has been a significant prevalence of burnout found during the COVID-19 pandemic among nurses. On the contrary, our findings reflect that nurses have high resilience, something that is a benefit to the system as they never stop working. Nurses experiencing burnout have a higher tendency to leave their department/organization and their job, a fact that their management should have in mind. We suggest that management should be proactive and supportive in improving working conditions and providing assurance to employees. The long-term effects of the current pandemic need to be assessed later.