INTRODUCTION:

Stress is a physical or emotional state of response always present in a person as a result of living. It is intensified in a non specific response to an internal or external environmental change or threat. Stress is frequently described as ‘the black plague of the eighties or the modern epidemic’ has become an important feature and major problem of everyday life, threatening individual, organization and societal health. Occupational or job stress is a harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources or needs of the workers. Stressful working conditions also may interfere with an employee’s ability to work safely, contributing to work injuries and illnesses.

Stress at work is a relatively new phenomenon of modern lifestyles. The nature of work has gone through drastic changes over the last century and it is still changing at whirl wind speed. They have touched almost all professions, starting from an artist to a surgeon or a commercial pilot to a sales executive, with change comes stress, inevitably. Professional stress or job stress poses a threat to physical health work related stress in the life of organized workers, consequently, affects the health of organizations. Numerous studies have indicated that job stress is significant in nursing. It was found that job stress brought about hazardous impacts not only on nurses’ health but also their abilities to cope with job demands. This will seriously impair the provision of quality care and the efficacy of health services delivery.

Nurses’ high job stress is well documented. In particular, the job stress of nurses working in acute and specialized care units has been widely studied. Heavy work load, poor staffing, dealing with death and dying, inter-staff conflict, strain of shift work, careers and lack of resources and organizational support have been identified as the major source of job stress. It has also been found that different nurses experience job stress differently. Some studies reported that senior registered nurses and charge nurses experienced a higher degree of stress than other ranks of nurses. However other studies found that stress level was significantly higher in junior nurses than in the senior nurses. There are also studies reporting that the longer nurses had worked in their units the more likely they were to experience stress regardless of their seniority. Increased work load among nurses, growing occupational stress and declining job satisfaction are major concerns for nurse managers and nursing educators.

NEED OF STUDY:

Nurses play an important role in the health team along with other health professionals. She strives for the prevention of disease, promotion of health and prolonging the life of individuals and the community. She works at patient level, doctor’s level and administration level. In this setting, she faces lot of physical and psychological stress. Job stress is also called burnout which is characterized by emotional, physical and spiritual exhaustion.

Job stress is a chronic disease caused by conditions in the work place that negatively affect an individual’s performance and/or overall well-being of his body and mind, one or more of a host of physical and mental illnesses manifests job stress. Some are usually required to validate the reason and degree of work related stress. Occupational stress is the result of interaction between characteristics of individual workers, resources and stress factors, which are any physical, mental or social factors related to the work environment.

Individuals with work stress usually experience an unpleasant awareness of their internal or external environment when they are at work, anticipating going to work, or just thinking about work. An individual may experience work stress without awareness, however, and in this case its presence may be suspected by others who note changes in the individual’s behaviour mental or physical status. Occupational stress arises from social arrangements that are partially determined by the organization of work. The concepts “work environment” and “organization of work” apply to both general factors, such as organizational and
managerial characteristics and factors applying to individual workers.

In the nursing profession these factors vary greatly, health care institutions are different in size and nature and nurses are confronted with different work tasks and working hours (e.g., night shifts) working conditions (e.g., understaffing) and stress related situations such as the suffering and death of patients. Rapid

changes in health care technology, diversity in the workforce, organizational restructuring and changing work systems can place stress on nurses. Burnout occurs as a result of chronic stress. Burnout is a syndrome of

emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation of others and perceptions of reduced personal accomplishment, resulting from intense involvement with people in a care giving environment. When nurses experience burnout syndrome they may withdraw from others and remain absent, exhibit decreased work performance and negative feelings towards others. Heavy work load and the consequence occupational stress can have serious consequences for nurses and their patients. A strong relation has been found between stress and job satisfaction. A new multi-country study, conducted by the World Health Organization, International Council of Nurses, Royal College of Nursing, UK (2003) on the international migrational and mobility of nurses found that inadequate working conditions are one of the main factors driving nurse migration. Low wages, lack of resources to work effectively, limited career opportunities and limited educational opportunities are other important factors. Due to insufficient staffing levels, nurses become frustrated about their inability to complete their work to their professional satisfaction and they experience difficulties in meeting patient’s needs. Heavy work load and a high level of occupational stress diminish nursing quality.

RESEARCH APPROACH :

According to Burn and Nancy research approach indicates the procedure of conducting the study. In order to accomplish the objectives of the study. The research approaches adopted for this research study is descriptive survey approach. In this the researcher simply measures the present level of the independent variable. So the above mentioned research approach is suitable for the study.

VARIABLES:

Variables are qualities, properties (or) characteristic of persons, things or situations that change or vary.

In this study two types of variables are used they are

v Independent variable

v Dependent variable

Independent variable:

The variable that is purposely manipulated or changed by the research. In this study, independent variable refers to demographic variable.

Dependent variable:

It is the variables that changes as the independent variable is manipulated by the researcher. In this study, dependent variable refers to occupational stress.

SAMPLING TECHNIQUE:-

Sampling is a process of selecting group of people, events or portion of the population to represent the entire population.

Technique used is Non probability purposive sampling.

BACK GROUND OF THE STUDY:-

Occupational stress is the result of interaction between characteristics of individual persons, resources and stress factors. It is important to understand how work associated stress effects nurses and what factors in their working environment cause great burden. It is also of great importance to gain more knowledge of nurses working conditions, occupational stress and its management. Hence, there is a need to assess the occupational stress among staff nurses at selected Private hospitals in Raipur

OBJECTIVES:-

1. Assess the level of occupational stress among staff nurses at selected private hospital in Raipur.

2. To determine the relationship of occupational stress among staff nurses at selected private hospital in Raipur with selected socio demographic variables

HYPOTHESIS:-

v H1 There will be a significant level of occupational stress among staff nurses at selected

private hospital in Raipur.

v H2 There will be a significant co-relation between occupational stress among staff nurses at selected private hospital in Raipur with selected socio demographic variables.

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK:

Conceptual framework for this study is based up on Betty Neuman’s health system model. Neumen uses definition of Selyes on stressors as tension producing stimuli with potential of causing disequilibrium. This is a complex system model which focus of stress reaction and its reduction

The present study is aimed at assessing the level of stress among staff nurses working in selected hospitals in Raipur, The stress reduction and coping strategies are not considered in the study. The model views the client holistically and multi dimensionally. The client is the core of the circle with several protective layers. The central core consists of the response pattern, organ strength, weakness and ego structure and known as commonalities. The three surrounding layers such as flexible line of defense, normal line of defense, Line of resistance protects the individual from stressors.

METHOD:-

Non experimental descriptive survey approach was used in the present study to accomplish the objectives. Non probability purposive sampling was used for selection of 100 staff nurses. The data was collected by structured rating scale. The tools comprises of two sections:

Section -1 – Demographic variables of Staff nurses working in selected private hospitals.

Section -2 – Structured rating scale to assess occupational stress.

Questionnaire was provided to the study subjects to assess occupational stress among them. The reliability of the tool was found to be 0.83 which indicates that the tool was reliable

RESULT:-

Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis, result of the study revealed that on an average, 78% of the staff nurses are having frequent stress and 22% of the nurses are having neutral stress, none of them having no stress or occasional stress or extreme stress.

It was also found that staff nurses are having an average 64.27% of stress in each domain. i.e. for Inadequate preparation, skill and knowledge (59.28%), work load and organization (63.36%), interpersonal conflict at work (63.56%), uncertainity in working environment (64.20%), Working with patient and families (65.48%) and safety and security (69.72%).

It is also revealed that there is association between demographic variables and their level of stress. Age, professional qualification, attending management program and place of stay are significantly associated with their level of stress. Younger, less educated, not attended management programmes and hostel/quarter stayed staff nurses are having more stress than others. Statistical significance was analyzed using pearson, chi-square test.

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSION:-

As the interpretation results shows that average 78% of staff nurses are frequently stressful and the level of stress is influenced by their age, education, area of living and previous stress management classes. It is evident that staff nurses usually suffers from occupational stress and the level of stress in influenced by various socio demographic variables. Hence the researcher emphasizes and conclude that stress management classes should be conducted for nurses.

Received on 19.05.2016 Modified on 24.06.2016

Int. J. Nur. Edu. and Research.2016; 4(2): 203-206

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2660.2016.00040.5