Work

“It’s hard to keep giving emotionally when you’re so tired”: a qualitative study of burnout among nurses in the haemodialysis unit of a teaching hospital in Ghana

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: INTRODUCTION: The global burden of chronic kidney disease, which has been exacerbated by the high number of patients requiring dialysis to sustain their lives. This makes the dialysis units a high-pressure unit prone to severe burnout. Nurses are particularly prone to burnout due to the demanding nature of their roles, combined with administrative burdens, staffing shortages, and organisational constraints. However, there is a dearth of studies examining burnout among nurses in dialysis units in resource-constrained settings. AIM: The study explored burnout among nurses working in the dialysis unit of a Teaching Hospital, Ghana. METHODS: A facility-based descriptive qualitative study research design was used to collect data from ten purposively selected nurses working in the dialysis unit of a Teaching Hospital in Ghana. Individual interviews were conducted with the participants using a semi-structured interview guide. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Three themes emerged from the data analysis: causes of burnout, impact of burnout, and coping with burnout among nurses. The causes of burnout identified included high workload with fewer staff, physical demands of dialysis, inadequate material resources, and emotional strain of dialysis care. Burnout impacted the physical, psychosocial, and emotional well-being of nurses, as well as impacting patient care. The nurses coped with burnout by employing personal resources such as physical and emotional self-care strategies, social support, as well as very little job resources like workplace adjustments. CONCLUSIONS: The phenomenon of burnout is a serious occupational health challenge among nurses in dialysis units in resource-constrained settings like Ghana. The findings emphasise the need for increased job resources rather than individual coping mechanisms to effectively deal with the negative impact of burnout on nurses in the dialysis unit.

Source: BMC Nursing

DOI: 10.1186/s12912-025-03939-4