Abstract
Although nurses work in stressful environments, stressors in such environments have yet to be clearly assessed. This study aimed to develop a Nurses’ Occupational Stressor Scale (NOSS) with high reliability and validity. Candidate questions for the NOSS were generated by expert consensus following focus group feedback, and were used to survey in 2013. A shorter version was then developed after examination for validity and reproducibility in 2014. The accuracy of the short version of the NOSS for predicting nurses’ stress levels was evaluated based on receiver operating characteristic curves to compare existing instruments for measuring stress outcomes, namely personal burnout, client-related burnout, job dissatisfaction, and intention to leave. Examination for validity and reproducibility yielded a shorter version of NOSS with only 21 items was considered sufficient for measuring stressors in nurses’ work environments. Nine subscales were included: (1) work demands, (2) work–family conflict, (3) insufficient support from coworkers or caregivers, (4) workplace violence and bullying, (5) organizational issues, (6) occupational hazards, (7) difficulty taking leave, (8) powerlessness, and (9) unmet basic physiological needs. The 21-item NOSS proved to have high concurrent and construct validity. The correlation coefficients of the subscales for test-retest reliability ranged from 0.71 to 0.83. The internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) coefficients ranged from 0.35 to 0.77. The NOSS exhibited accurate prediction of personal burnout, client-related burnout, job dissatisfaction, and intention to leave.
Highlights
As highlighted by the International Labour Organization [1], occupational stress is an increasingly global phenomenon which affects workers in all workplaces and countries
This study was divided into three phases: (1) generation and pilot testing of candidate questions, (2) condensation of the scale according to validity and reproducibility, and (3) examination of accuracy of the condensed Nurses’ Occupational Stressor Scale (NOSS) for predicting stress outcomes
The content of the NOSS was constructed according to research goals, and by referring to the questionnaire titled “survey of perceptions of safety and health in the work environment in 2013 Taiwan” [27] and the work–family conflict scale [28]
Summary
As highlighted by the International Labour Organization [1], occupational stress is an increasingly global phenomenon which affects workers in all workplaces and countries. Nurses are known to have high work demands, high occupational stress, high rates of burnout [2,3,4], low job satisfaction [5], Int. J. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 649; doi:10.3390/ijerph17020649 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
