Work stress among registered nurses in health care services : descriptive literature review

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the reasons that lead registered nurses to work stress and burnout. This thesis is addressed to all students and medical staff, as well as to different groups of people interested in the topic. The purpose was also to find out how organisations help and support their staff to cope with this challenging work, which requires a strong mentality to support patients and their families, while at the same time protecting their own mental health. In the literature review, data has been collected from various databases and scientific articles that answer the research questions. The data was analysed by using an induc-tive content analysis. The result of the study has shown that, as registered nursing is mentally exhausting because it deals with sick and dying people, it is an additional source of stress on men-tal health. Medical organisations should intervene more deeply in work-related stress as this can have a positive impact overall collective and reduce burnout rates in wards