Correlates of Perceived Stress and Professional Quality of Life Among Nurses Working in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) in North India: A Multicenter Study

Objective To estimate the levels of perceived stress and determine the professional quality of life domains namely, compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary trauma and their associated factors in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses. Methods A multicenter cross-sectional study was carried out across a number of NICUs in North India from May to June 2022. A total of 223 nurses included in the study were given a self-administered questionnaire consisting of their sociodemographic profile, work profile, PSS 14 scale, and ProQol 5 scale. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient, and multiple regression. Results Based on PSS 14, 52(23.3%), 132(59.2%), and 39(17.5%) nurses experienced mild, moderate, and severe stress, respectively. Burnout and secondary trauma were found to be average in the majority of nurses (178[79.8%] and 175 [78.5%], respectively) in regard to professional quality of life domains. A sizable portion of the nurses was found to have average to high compassion satisfaction. Factors such as more number of night duties, alarms and lights in NICU, lesser professional experience, high workload, being unmarried, and having no children were found to be significant in association with perceived stress and professional quality of life. Conclusion According to this study, the majority of nurses who work in NICUs experience moderate levels of stress, which negatively impacts their professional quality of life. Therefore, it is important to consider various stress management programs based on the stressors.