Occupational Stress and Job Burnout of Female Medical Staff: The Moderating Role of Psychological Capital and Social Support

The field of medicine is quite challenging as employees have to long and irregular working hours under extreme pressue. This work pressure and exhaustion lead to occupational stress. Occupational stress, when unaddressed, leads to burnout which adversely affects the physical and mental health of female staff working in thisfield. This study investigates the relationship between occupational stress and job burnout on a sample of female medical staff working in the public health sector, with the moderating role played by psychological capital and social support in the relationship betweenoccupational stress and job burnout. The sample consists of 250 female employees working in the public hospitals of the twin cities (Rawalpindi and Islamabad) of Pakistan. The result showed that occupational stress causes job burnout and psychological capital moderates the relationship between them. The three dimensions of psychological capital namely self-efficacy, resilience, and hope, moderate the above relationship while optimism has no effect on it. The results also showed that family support acts as a moderator between stress and burnout, however, supervisory support supportive supervision does not have the same effect. This study highlights that coping strategies help medical/health workers in dealing with stress and burnout. Furthermore, family support plays an essential role in minimizing the stress of female health workers. Therefore, the administration of hospitals should arrange training to enhance the psychological capital of their health workers to keep them stress-free and efficient in their tasks.