Stressors Among Healthcare Workers: A Summative Content Analysis

Healthcare workers are experiencing high stress and burnout, at rates up to 70%, hindering patient care. Studies often focus on stressors in a particular setting or within the context of the pandemic which limits understanding of a more comprehensive view of stressors experienced by healthcare workers. The purpose of this study was to assess healthcare workers’ self-reported major stressors. Between June 2018 and April 2019, U.S. healthcare workers (N = 2,310) wrote answers to an open-ended question: “What are your biggest stressors as you look back over the last few weeks?” A summative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Healthcare workers described three types of stressors: work stressors (49% of total stressors), personal life stressors (32% of total stressors), and stressors that intersect work and personal life (19% of total stressors). Future research and clinical practice should consider the multi-faceted sources of stress.