Stress and Health: A Comparative Study among Nurses

This survey based descriptive research has been undertaken in Tirunelveli District, Tamil Nadu as a comparative study to identify and differentiate sources of stress and its impact on health of nurses working in four core departments namely intensive care unit, operation theatre, emergency department and ward. Sources of stress have been identified under three dimensions namely physical environment and welfare facilities related stressors, discrimination and harassment related stressors and attitude towards work related stressors. The study has sampled 360 nurses qualified with Diploma in General nursing and Midwifery and Bachelor of Science in nursing courses from 45 general types of private hospitals using a stratified sampling technique. Weighted average method has been applied to analyse sources of stress. Mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation have been used to understand perception of nurses working in four core departments towards sources of stress. Kruskal-Wallis test has been administered to examine the relationship between sources of stress and demographic variables. Multiple regression models have been used to know relationship between sources of stress and health. The result indicated that all three dimensions of stressors have been perceived at medium level by majority of the nurses. The result also found that among three dimensions of stress or physical environment and welfare facilities related stressors has occupied the first place followed by attitude towards work related stressors and discrimination and sexual harassment related stressors. The study has given suitable suggestions to overcome the stress.