Uncovering the Extent and Drivers of Burnout Among Hispanic Nurses

Surveys from the COVID pandemic have found that as many as 50% of nurses experienced burnout and that stressors were linked to younger age, fear of caring for patients with COVID and of infecting family members, and limited organizational resources.

Researchers from Penn Nursing and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, however, saw that little attention was paid to the crisis specifically among Hispanic nurses, who make up 6% of the nursing workforce in the United States but face disproportionate challenges.

While past research has documented pay disparities and higher reports of intent to leave among Hispanic nurses, along with a higher likelihood of contracting COVID and experiencing familial losses from the virus, the new study from Penn Nursing researchers, published in the journal Nursing Outlook, focused on burnout among Hispanic nurses.

The researchers found that 55% of Hispanic nurses reported burnout and 18% experienced COVID-related post-traumatic stress disorder, compared to 51% and 13% of non-Hispanic white nurses, respectively. They show that this disparity was tied to both work environment and differences in nurse characteristics, such as age.

“It was surprising and alarming to see the rates of burnout for Hispanic nurses and even more so because so many of them are younger,” says Penn Nursing’s J. Margo Brooks Carthon, the study’s first author. “It’s concerning when we see nurses from underrepresented backgrounds and have so much to contribute experiencing the greatest toll.”

Brooks Carthon asked Dean Antonia M. Villarruel, who has extensive experience working with Hispanic communities and advocating for the mobility of Hispanic nurses, to get involved with this research.

“There needs to be attention paid to nurses’ well-being given the continued stress of dealing with complex life and death situations on a daily basis,” says Villarruel, the paper’s senior author. “There are important system issues (e.g., nurse environment) that need to be addressed while at the same time understanding personal stressors that may vary by race, ethnicity, gender, and years of practice experience.”

She says that understanding how to improve the well-being of the nursing workforce, which impacts patient outcomes, fits into the School of Nursing’s broader approach of viewing research, practice, and education through a health-equity lens. This work builds on Penn Nursing research related to workforce and efforts to understand “the unique contributions of and challenges experienced by Hispanic and other nurses of color,” Villarruel says.

This is an excerpt from a longer article that was first published in Penn Today. It was written by Erica Moser, science news officer in University Communications.