Date of Award

Spring 2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Selected Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Nursing

Department

Nursing

School

School of Nursing and Health Sciences

Abstract

Burnout among inpatient oncology nurses remains a concern in a specialty marked by high patient acuity, complex care regimens, emotional intensity, and repeated exposure to suffering and death. Resilience is often discussed as a protective resource in nursing, yet less is known about how personal resilience and work resilience relate to work stress and burnout within inpatient oncology practice. This study examined the relationships among perceived work stress, personal resilience, work resilience, and burnout among registered nurses working in inpatient oncology units. It also explored whether selected nurse characteristics were associated with these variables and how nurses described workplace stressors, coping, and support. This study used a cross-sectional descriptive-correlational design, complemented by qualitative narrative data collected through open-ended survey questions. Participants were recruited via the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) and through LinkedIn, a professional networking outreach. The final sample comprised 124 inpatient oncology nurses, with 118 to 119 valid responses across various analyses. Quantitative instruments included the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale-10 (CD-RS-10), the Employee Resilience Scale, the Mahler Work Stress Scale, and the Non-Proprietary Single-Item Burnout Measure. The results demonstrated that work stress was positively correlated with burnout, r(116) = .489, p < .001. Personal resilience exhibits a negative correlation with work stress, r(117) = -.341, p < .001, and burnout, r(116) = -.206, p = .025. Additionally, work resilience shows negative correlations with work stress (r(117) = -.361, p < .001) and burnout (r(116) = -.376, p < .001). Of the total 118 participants, 54.2% met the validated cutoff criterion for burnout, with 64 individuals screening positive for the condition. Age was not a significant predictor of the primary variables under investigation. The qualitative findings provide additional depth to these results. Nurses identified peer support, teamwork, informal debriefing, self-care, meaning making, and boundaries between work and home as significant sources of support. Simultaneously, they described stress stemming from patient acuity, fear of errors, staffing shortages, documentation burdens, emotional strain, and inconsistent leadership support. Collectively, these findings suggest that burnout among inpatient oncology nurses is influenced not only by individual coping abilities but also by the relational and organizational conditions of practice. Therefore, effectively addressing burnout in this context necessitates comprehensive strategies that extend beyond individual wellness initiatives to include workplace, leadership, and support structures designed to promote the well-being of nurses in their professional environment

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