A Comparative Study of Professional Quality of Life

The aim of the present research was to study the professional quality of life of nurses in relation to depression, anxiety and coping strategies. The impact of years of work experience on the professional quality of life of nurses and its correlates was also investigated. Two hundred female nurses employed in Punjab comprised the sample for the study. The sample was categorized into two groups of 100 nurses each, based on years of work experience, i.e., 2 to 4 years and 6 to 8 years respectively. Based on Stamm’s (2010) model, majority of the nurses in the study showed “positive reinforcement from work” profile. Depression emerged as a significant predictor of compassion satisfaction, burnout and secondary traumatic stress in nurses with more years of work experience explaining 19%, 31% and 4% of variance in the criterion variables respectively. Social withdrawal emerged to be a significant predictor of burnout and secondary traumatic stress explaining 3% and 17% in them respectively. Nurses with less work experience need more attention, support and guidance as they were found to be high on depression and anxiety; and low on compassion satisfaction, and social contact coping.