Revista de Prácticas Avanzadas en Enfermería

Occupational Stress Amongst Nurses in Tertiary care Hospital in Lahore, Punjab (Pakistan)

Abstract

Fazeelat Tahira, Muhammad Afzal1, Robina Shaheen

Introduction: Nurses are the first line of defense of all health care systems. It is profession of care, providing care to others, caring includes understanding and connecting with others and it is exhibited when a nurse holds onto the professional nursing values. Nurses play an important role in the health care set up to provide a quality care to the patients and acknowledged to play a vital role in health organizations.

Objective: Detecting the causes of occupational stress among nurses and revealing the best interventions and coping strategies of stress that found to be helpful for nurses are the main aims of this study.

• To assess the stress level of Nurses in FMH.

• To identify the Factors of Stress in Nurses of FMH.

• To assess the Coping Style of Stress in Nurses of FMH.

Methodology: A cross sectional study was conducted from October 2016 to March 2017 on Nurses of Fatima memorial hospitals Lahore. A total of 133 Nurses were selected. Data was collected on a self-developed closed ended questionnaire. Responses were analyzed on Statistical Package of social Sciences using descriptive statistics.

Results: In reference of the Table 1 in socio-demographic characteristics, majority of the participants were female 121 out of 133 (91%) and unmarried were more than married 76 out of 133 (57.1%). Majority of the participants 61(45.9%) were in the age of 26-30 years and second majority of the participants 48 (36%) were in the age of 20-25 years.

Related to the professional qualification, majority of participants were Nursing Diploma 78 out 133(59%) and Generic BSN participants were 12 out of 133(9.0%) and the Post RN participants were 43 out of 133(32.3%). According to designation data revealed 116(87.2%) participants were charge nurses and 11(8.3%) participants were head nurses and only 6(4.5%) were team leaders.

The Table 2 presents that 28(21.7%) participants are in high stress and 11.5% no stress due to time pressure and 22 (16.5%) participants in high stress and 16(12%) no stress due to time pressure. 26(19.5%) participants no stress due to family safety. 38 (28.6%) participants very low stress due to caring for others. 41 (31%) low stress due to financial situation. 33(25%) moderate stress due to physical problem. 9(6.8%) participants in extreme stress due to own work situation.

The Table 3 revealed the factors of stress as 6(4.5%) stress strongly disagree due to high rates of death, seniors not helpful, too many patients at the same time and conflicts with colleagues. 30(23%) disagree, due to seniors’ not being helpful. 47(35.3%) neutral for all factors. 53(40%) agree due to job require to learn new things. 45(34%) strongly agree due to job require a high level of skills.

The Table 4 data revealed as: 54(40%) participants agree with the coping style of stress mention in the table. 33(25%) out of 133 strongly agree, with sleeping more than usual. 33(25%) disagree, coping stress by medication. 50 (38%) neutral by eating more usual. 21(16%) strongly disagree by medication.

Conclusion: The consequence of stress is not only affecting work performance, but also its effects on the individual’s physical and psychological health. Levels of health problem that can occur when stress is prolonged or cannot be avoided. For instance, experiencing physical and mental symptoms, it is starting from a headache, backache, feeling mentally fatigued at the end of the day, frustrated, tense or angry, developing to chronic illness like cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, colitis, depression and/or anxiety.

The nursing profession has been known as a stressful profession that influences the quality of health care delivery and patient safety. In nursing, occupational stress such as workload and organizational factors including leadership are the major factors of causing stress among nurses.