Work related stress and stress reactions among staff nurses

People with different jobs encountered different types and quantities of stress. Nursing is one of the most stressful profession. Nursing is an occupation with a constellation of circumstances leading to stress. Nurses in India are overburdened as the nurse to patient ratio is low (1:2250). They are responsible along with other health care professionals – for the treatment, safety, and recovery of acutely or chronically ill, injured, health maintenance, treatment of life threatening emergencies, and medical and nursing research. Nurses do not only assume the role of caregivers but are also administrators and supervisors of patients. These multiple work roles contribute to the significant amount of occupation related stress among nursing staff. Nurses in the so-called high stress areas such as Intensive Care Units may be expected more stress than nurses working in less stressful areas. The present study was conducted with the purpose to assess the relationship between work related stress and stress reactions among staff nurses. The objectives of the study were to identify the work related stress and stress reactions as reported by the staff nurses working in critical care units of Christian Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana and to find correlation between the work- related stress and stress reactions. A three point Likert Scale on Work Related Stress and four point likert Scale on Stress Reaction were developed and used. The pilot study was conducted to ensure the reliability of the tool and feasibility of the study. Data was collected from 60 staff nurses working in Critical Care Units of Christian Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, by using non-probability, purposive sampling technique. The data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics, finding revealed that 60% of staff nurses had moderate level of work related stress & 65% staff nurses occasionally had stress reactions. The correlation between work -related stress and stress reactions was 0.57 which shows moderate positive correlation