Original Research Article
Year: 2022 | Month: June | Volume: 12 | Issue: 6 | Pages: 309-316
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijhsr.20220640
Occupational Stress and Coping among Nurses
Dutta B1, Khanikor MS2
1PhD Scholar, Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences/Lecturer,
Regional College of Nursing, Guwahati.
2Former Vice Chancellor, IGTMSU, Arunachal Pradesh & Former Principal,
Regional College of Nursing, Guwahati.
Corresponding Author: Baby Dutta
ABSTRACT
A descriptive study to identify perceived occupational stress and adopted coping strategies among nurses in a selected hospital of Guwahati, Assam.
The present study was designed to identify the perceived occupational stress and adopted coping strategies among nurses in a selected hospital of Guwahati. The objectives of the study were: (1) To identify the common stressors perceived by the nurses. (2) To find out the common coping strategies adopted by them to overcome stress. (3) To determine the association between perceived job stress and selected demographic variables. (4) To find out the association between adopted coping strategies and selected demographic variables. (5) To find out the association between perceived job stress and adopted coping strategies by nurses.
The sample comprised of 100 conveniently selected nurses working in various wards of a selected Govt Hospital in Guwahati city. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. Data was collected through a structured questionnaire which consisted of three parts. PART A of the tool was the Demographic proforma. The PART B included the OSI- Occupational Stress Index scale and the PART C of the tool consisted of Coping Check List (CCL).
In the study majority of the participants were working in the capacity of staff nurse and were having more than 5 years of professional experience. The participants perceived ‘unprofitability’ & ‘role overload’ as the main stressors in their work environment. ‘Unreasonable group & political pressure’ ranked 3rd, followed by ‘under participation’ which ranked 4th. Among coping strategies, emotion focussed strategies ranked 1st in the order, problem focussed strategies ranked 2nd, and problem & emotion focussed ranked 3rd in the order. It reflected that the most commonly used coping strategy under emotion focussed strategies, was positive distraction. Findings suggested that there is significant association between perceived occupational stress and demographic variable of ‘professional qualification’. Significant association was also observed between coping scores and general academic qualification. There was a statistically significant relationship between perceived job stress and adopted coping strategies.
Based on the finding of the above study it is recommended that studies may be undertaken considering other variables and may be replicated on a large sample.
Key words: Occupational stress, Coping strategies, Nurses.