A Comparison of Hospital Stressors and their Related Factors: From the Perspective of the Cardiac and Internal Wards’ Patients

Abstract

Background: Stress is one of the human being’s predicaments in the current century which has extended its effects on various aspects of peoples’ lives. These unpleasant effects have indeed afflicted the patients even more and can aggravate their health status. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the stressors inherent in the cardiac ward and internal ward of hospitals. Methods and materials: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Sistaan-va-Baluchestaan province, Zahedaan city in 2013 and all of the patients hospitalized in the cardiac and internal wards of the Khaatam Hospital and Imam Ali Hospital were taken as the population. Available sampling was used to extract a sample of 368 patients. Data was gathered by handing out a questionnaire produced by the researcher and the descriptive statistics, Chi-square, and ANOVA tests were used to analyze the data. Results: Analyses indicate that the mean of stressors in the internal and cardiac wards are 60.36 and 44.90 respectively which are statistically significant. The mean of stressors’ scores has a significant relationship with background factors such as level of education, hospitalization history, marital status, religion, and sex but did not render any significant relationship with other variables. Conclusion: Since stress may lead to the deterioration of the patients’ illness it is expected that the authorities detect the least stressors in hospitals and take action to moderate them. In this regard non-specialist units are in greater need for attention.