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Background: High levels of stress and burnout, documented among healthcare professionals, result in high levels of job turnover. However, little is known about personal strategies employed by advanced practice providers (APPs) to mitigate stress. Methods: 3,939 APPs were invited to complete an online, anonymous, cross-sectional survey to examine work stress and burnout among APPs using quantitative and qualitative analyses. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) served as the measure for burnout. Work-stress reduction strategies were identified by an open-ended question. Findings: 854 APPs (70% of 1,218 respondents) (nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurse midwives, anesthetists, and clinical nurse specialists) from four different United States health systems completed the free text portion of the survey. Qualitative analyses revealed that almost all of the APPs (94%) reported at least one stress reduction strategy. Four main themes were derived from the free-text responses: “Self-focused” (67.5%), “relational-focused”(16.1%), “job-focused” (11.5%) and “nothing” (4.9%). Quantitative results from the MBI revealed high levels of burnout among APPs with insignificant differences between those who provided a response to the qualitative question and those who did not: emotional exhaustion ( p = .188); depersonalization ( p = .265); personal accomplishment ( p = .213). Conclusion/Application to Practice: Qualitative results highlighted strategies, many evidence-based, that APPs use to mitigate stress. Further research is needed to determine the frequency and consistency of APPs’ enactment of personal strategies. These initial findings provide insights for occupational health practitioners and researchers planning primary prevention and secondary interventions for improving workplace health, enhancing personal wellness, and reducing job-related stressors.

Unresolved work stress contributes to burnout, compassion fatigue, disengagement, and other work-contextualized factors. The impact of occupational stressors extends to the organization in a negative fashion as well. In 2017, advanced practice providers (APPs) from four health systems, including nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse midwives, nurse anesthetists, and physician assistants, participated in a quantitative online cross-sectional survey; 754 participants responded to a free-text question related to work stress and work–family balance. Suggested organizational strategies were ordered into 29 codes, 10 subthemes, and four main themes: “reduce job stressors,” “improve leadership and operations,” “promote APP well-being,” and “maintain the status quo.” Findings are consistent with other research related to occupational stress with many of the reported strategies considered as evidence-based. Targeted interventions for reducing job stress will need to include improved autonomy for APPs, role delineation, support for work–family balance, and better communication as part of management practices.