Stress among Nurses in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Stress is a part and parcel of human lifestyle. Stress is a bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium. Nursing is generally perceived as demanding profession. Along with the increased demand and progress in the nursing profession, stress among the nurses has also increased. The study is carried out with the objectives to assess the level of stress among nurses and to associate the level of stress among nurses with their socio demographic variables. METHODS: Cross sectional research design was adopted.200 nurses working in selected tertiary care hospital were selected by using probability simple random sampling technique. Data was collected by using modified stress inventory. RESULTS: The study revealed that among 200 samples 2(1%) had mild stress, 79(39.5%) had moderate stress and 119(59.5%) had severe stress. In associating the sociodemograpic variables with the level of stress, the variables like age, sex, religion, marital status, educational qualification, designation, area of working, programme attended related to stress, relaxation technique used have no significant association at the level of p<0.05 where as variables income, years of experience, area of living have significant association with level of stress at the level of p<0.001 &p<0.20. CONCLUSION: The study concludes that majority of the nurses have stress. It is also found that stress due to work organization and inter personal relationship at work is harder which adds up to the stress. It is evident in the present study that younger age group and women were commonly affected with severe stress .Income earned and place where they live also influences the stress. It is recommended to implement strategies for reducing stress and to organize stress management programme.