Work-related stress among nurses: a challenge for health care institutions

Abstract

The issue of occupational stress amongst health care professionals is currently a major concern in health policy. The main goal of the present study has been to investigate the relationship between levels of stress among nurses, and some of the psychosocial and organisational characteristics of their job. The participants of the cross-sectional survey were female nurses (n = 218) chosen at random from public hospitals in Csongrad Country, Hungary. A self-administered questionnaire was the method used for data collection: this questionnaire contained various items on psychosomatic symptoms, self-perceived health, sociodemographic data, job satisfaction, health risk behaviours, drug consumption, emotional load and social support from peers. The findings suggest that the frequency of common psychosomatic symptoms (e.g. sleeping problems, tension headache, chronic fatigue or palpitations), regular alcohol drinking, heavy smoking, and frequent use of tranquilisers and sleeping pills can be read as an indicator of nurses' work-related stress level. Nurses with only primary education had the highest such levels, while those with baccalaureate-level education had the lowest. Furthermore, nurses aged 51-60 years and those on rotating night shift proved to be vulnerable to stress the most frequently. However, no significant differences were found between nurses working in-theatre and those non-theatre; nor was job satisfaction found to have a significant impact on the levels of stress experienced. The results suggest that supportive relationships with peers may reduce the occurrence of high stress levels among nurses, leading the author to conclude that social support and the psychosocial work climate should be improved in health care institutions.

Neonatal intensive care nursery staff perceive enhanced workplace quality with the single-family room design

“…34 Ten (10%) respondents complained of headaches in the OPBY NICU compared with only one (<1%) in the SFR NICU, suggesting the possibility of lower levels of stress in this facility. 35,36 There are limitations to this investigation. Moving to a new SFR NICU facility is a major organizational transformation.…”

Effects of Changing Shift Schedules from a Full-day to a Half-day Shift before a Night Shift on Physical Activities and Sleep Patterns of Single Nurses and Married Nurses with Children

“…One of the factors the devised experimental shift schedule (HF-N) least improved for married nurses may have been the burden of household duties and caring for their children. There are few studies on women who perform shift-work that take into account the family-home environment, e.g., their responsibilities in caring for a child and/or an elderly relative [14][15][16][17][18] . These findings indicated that family responsibilities affect the quantity and quality of sleep/naps and alcohol use in married nurses with small children, and that married nurses with children needed more support with work schedules as well as social facilities and co-worker support 15,17,19,20) .…”

Relationship between Characteristics of Psychosocial Work Environment and Life Satisfaction among Nurses

“…Leginkább az já-rul hozzá az élettel való elégedettséghez, ha 1., valaki jónak tartja személyes teljesítményét; 2., összességében elégedett munkájával; 3., régóta dolgozik az egészségügyben; 4., hivatása presztízsét magasnak tartja; 5., magasabb iskolai végzettséggel rendelkezik; és 6., még nem tapasztalta meg jelentõs mértékben az érzelmi kimerültséget. Mivel a munkakörnye-zeti tényezõk kihatnak a nõvérek testi-lelki egészségére (Escriba-Agüir és Tenias-Burillo 2004;Lambert és mtsai 2004;Leiter 1992;Murray, 2002;Pikó 1999;Ramirez és mtsai 1996;Wheeler és Riding 1994;Zammuner és Galli 2005), igen fontos volna a megelõzéshez a megfelelõ pszichoszociális klíma biztosítása. Az anyagi feltételek mellett ez olyan sajátosságo-kat is magában foglal, mint a szép fizikai környezet, a berendezések kellemes összhatása, a felettesek által nyújtott társas-emocionális támogatás, a szervezeti elkötelezettség erõsítése és jutalmazása (Rhoades és Eisenberg 2002).…”

“…Vannak kiemelten magas stressz-szintû munkahelyek, mint amilyen az egészségügy, ahol a fizikai és lelki stresszorok száma igen magas (Lambert és mtsai 2004;Pikó 1999;Wheeler és Riding 1994). A stressz-szint pedig szorosan összefügg a nõvérek munkaelégedettségével (Ramirez és mtsai 1996) A pszichoszociális munkakörnyezeti jellemzõk között a kiégés tünet-együttese a segítõ hivatást gyakorlók körében igen gyakran vizsgált jelenség (Spickard és mtsai 2002).…”