Faheem Ohri has successfully defended his dissertation at The University of Texas at Arlington’s School of Social Work, completing doctoral research that examines burnout among nurses in the United States before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ohri’s interest in the topic grew out of his own experience working in high-pressure clinical settings. He earned his bachelor’s degree in nursing and worked in both inpatient and outpatient care.
While working in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Ohri frequently stayed for double shifts when staffing shortages left patients without adequate nurse coverage. As a team lead, he was responsible for ensuring safe staffing levels, even when no additional nurses were available.
“Every week, I was doing double shifts, and that led to burnout,” Ohri said.
Faheem Ohri poses for a photo at the UTA School of Social Work. (Courtesy Photo)
He later transitioned to outpatient care, hoping for better balance. Instead, he encountered increasing patient assignments and expectations to work after hours without overtime pay. Those experiences led him to recognize that burnout was widespread and required policy-level attention.
Ohri’s dissertation analyzed burnout among U.S. nurses using large national datasets from 2018 and 2022. Grounded in Maslach’s burnout theory, the study used quantitative methods, including complex survey weights and logistic regression, to examine factors associated with burnout and how those patterns changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study found that inpatient nurses experienced significantly higher levels of burnout than outpatient nurses in both years examined. That disparity widened following COVID-19. Older nurses, non-White nurses and women were more likely to report burnout. Nurses with young children at home also faced higher risk, while being married or holding an advanced degree was associated with slightly lower odds of burnout.
Ohri said the findings point to gaps in nursing education and policy. He noted that nursing programs often lack coursework focused on burnout prevention, self-care and early identification of burnout symptoms.
“Nurses need education to recognize burnout before it happens,” Ohri said. “Policymakers also need to address workload and burnout prevention.”
Ohri hopes his research increases awareness of nurse burnout and supports organizational and policy change across health care. He said some of the most meaningful aspects of his doctoral journey were his roles as a graduate research assistant and graduate teaching assistant.
He credited his dissertation chair, Dr. Donna Schuman, with helping him complete the degree after unexpected challenges disrupted his timeline. After Ohri’s original committee chair left the university and his scholarship ended, he faced significant pressure to finish his program.
“Dr. Schuman stepped in and helped me in every way possible,” Ohri said. “She made it happen.”
Schuman said Ohri demonstrated resilience and growth throughout the dissertation process.
“He took initiative, reorganized his committee, and kept the project moving forward,” Schuman said. “Over time, he became much more confident in his theoretical grounding and far more sophisticated in his quantitative skills.”
Schuman added that Ohri’s work is notable for applying a social work lens to nursing burnout, a topic often examined only within nursing.
“His research highlights that burnout is not just an individual issue but a structural and organizational one,” she said.
Ohri encourages new doctoral students to choose their dissertation committees carefully and to plan ahead for graduation requirements, including submitting the graduation application through MyMav.
Following his dissertation defense, Ohri plans to continue teaching as an adjunct assistant professor at UTA while pursuing a tenure-track position. His future research will focus on burnout among first responders, including police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians.