Influence of psychosocial work factors on mental health among nurses in Africa: A Scoping Review

Nurses form the backbone of the global health workforce, delivering essential care in diverse and often challenging environments that profoundly affect their mental health and well-being (Sönmez et al., 2023). Within these environments, a key set of influences, known as psychosocial work factors, play a decisive role in shaping nurses’ mental health and safety. Psychosocial work factors include excessive workloads, inadequate staffing, resource shortages, poor remuneration, workplace violence, emotional demands, and poor work-life balance, among others (Roelen et al., 2018). These factors compromise the efforts towards creating decent, healthy and safet workplace that priortise the well-being of workers. In the health systems in Africa, nurses frequently work under precarious conditions marked by by chronic understaffing, resource constraints, inadequate remunerations, and high patient loads, all of which heighten their vulnerability to mental health challenges (Ekpor et al., 2024). Supervisor and peer support are crucial protective factors, reducing workplace stress, improving resilience, and lowering risks of psychological distress, burnout, absenteeism, and turnover. Conversely, a lack of such support is consistently linked to negative outcomes for both nurses and healthcare systems (Hämmig, 2017). Workplace violence is another urgent concern. For example, a systematic review by Ekpor et al. (2024) reported that over 60% of nurses in African settings experience some form of violence including verbal abuse, threats, bullying, and sexual harassment which has lasting impacts on their psychological well-being, increasing the risk of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress. Protecting the rights, dignity, and mental health of nurses is not just a matter of professional ethics but of fundamental human rights (Buonaccorso et al., 2025). The demanding nature of nursing often leads to secondary traumatic stress, especially when nurses repeatedly witness severe illness, suffering, or death (Roberts-Allen, 2022). Studies have found burnout prevalence rates of 44.4% in Nigeria (Alabi et al., 2021) and 24.0% in Somalia (Mohamed et al., 2025), indicating the heavy psychosocial burden among these professionals. It worth noting that while burnout is a critical outcome, it is part of a wider constellation of risks to nurses’ health, including depression, anxiety, insomnia, and social withdrawal, especially in low-resource African settings where nurse-to-patient ratios are critically low (Ahmat et al., 2022; Oware et al., 2024). The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these challenges. Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), increased workloads, and fear of infection left many African nurses reporting high levels of anxiety (52%) and insomnia (55%) (Andel et al., 2022). However, despite the growing body of research on psychosocial work factors globally (Schneider & Weigl, 2018), there remains limited evidence synthesis specifically addressing how these factors affect the mental health of nurses in Africa. Moreover, where occupational health policies exist across African nations, they are often narrow in scope, focusing primarily on infection control rather than the broader psychosocial and mental health needs of the workforce (Ridge et al., 2019). Africa’s distinct cultural, economic, and health system contexts mean that evidence and interventions from high-income countries cannot simply be transplanted without adaptation. There is an urgent need to systematically map and synthesise Africa-specific evidence to inform context-appropriate policies, workplace practices, and health system reforms. This scoping review therefore aims to map existing evidence on the influence of psychosocial work factors on the mental health of nurses in Africa, with a focus on prioritising their overall health, safety, and well-being not merely preventing burnout, but promoting resilience, dignity, and quality of life at work. This review provides a comprehensive synthesis specifically mapping how psychosocial work factors impact the mental health of nurses across African contexts, highlighting both risks and protective gaps often overlooked in global evidence. Furthermore, it indicates the urgent need to move beyond burnout prevention toward promoting holistic well-being, decent work, and psychologically safe healthcare environments tailored to Africa’s diverse health systems. Findings from this review will provide essential insights to guide future research and systematic reviews and will inform policymakers and health leaders in developing evidence-based strategies to protect nurses’ mental health. Ultimately, strengthening the health, safety, and well-being of nurses is fundamental not only to workforce sustainability but also to advancing Africa’s progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 3 (good health and well-being for all) and SDG target 8.5, which calls for achieving full and productive employment and decent work for all, including safe and healthy workplaces. This is especially critical for nurses, who represent the largest segment of healthcare professionals and are indispensable to the delivery of quality health services across the continent.