Job Stressors and Coping Strategies among Nurses Working in Azerbaijan Psychiatric Centers, 2003.

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction: Job stress is one of the most leading factors in our life. According to the International Nursing Association report, 60-90 percent of health difficulties are as the result of stress. As it known, nursing as a profession has got a high level of stress. Some studies indicate that psychiatric nurses experience a highest level of stress in comparison to the other groups. In the case of facing with stressful factors, using coping strategies become a necessity. Recent studies showed that effective coping has a positive impression on nurses' mental health. Regarding to the importance of effect of stress on the quality of nursing tasks, this study was carried out to determine job stressors and coping strategies among nurses who are working in psychiatric centers. Methods and Materials: This is a descriptive study. All nurses who were working in Tabriz and Uremia psychiatric centers were included in this study (n=67). Data collection was done by using a researcher's designed questionnaire and Copper's coping skill subscale. The questionnaire included two sections, consisting demographic characteristics and job stressors (physical and psychosocial). Coping skill subscale has got 28 items on coping strategies, the coping skill subscale has got three different choice of "always, often", "occasionally, usually" and "seldom and never". All the subjects of the study filled in the questionnaires. By applying SPSS program t- test, ANOVA, tukey and correlation were the statistical ways of analyzing the data. Results: The findings indicated that the noise of patients and staff members (79.1%), olfactory stimulators (79.0%), crowded of ward (74.6%) and long term hospitalization of patient (64.2%) and re-hospitalization (62.7%) were the most important physical and psychosocial factors. Most of the nurses (53.7%) claimed that they experience the physical stressors as sever. Psychosocial stressors were referred to as mostly claimed (62.7%), moderate. Also the findings showed that, coping strategies such as "I pay attention to specific difficulties" (70.2%) and "I try to recognize my limitations" (70.1%) were the most important coping strategies used by the subjects. Most of the subjects (50.7%) has taken coping strategy as always and often 49.3% of them used it as usually and occasionally. Discussion: This study can pave the way for the future studies to establish some strategies to reduce job stressors and to increase the nurses' coping abilities in psychiatric centers. Naturally it can lead to the job promotion of the people working in stressful places. It can also be an initiation for other colleagues to carry out other related studies to eliminate difficulties and problems related to psychiatric centers.