Impact of Work Stress on Quality of Nursing Care among Nurses at EL-Minia University Hospitals

Abstract

Background: Nursing is a stressful career; occupational stress is a common occurrence inhealth professions. Job stressors and low job control have been shown to be risk factors forpatient safety and lead to poor job performance including reduced quality of nursing care.This study aimed to identify the impact of work stress on quality of nursing care amongnurses at EL-Minia University Hospitals. The study was developed within descriptiveapproach, and was carried out at EL-Minia and Suzan Mubarak University Hospitals in El-Minia Governorate. Sample & setting: Subjects of the study were all nurses (158) whoworked in all general and critical departments at El-Minia University Hospitals, three toolswere used for data collection: 1- Demographic data sheet 2- Stress scale 3- Quality of nursingcare scale. Results: The findings of the study showed that Less than two thirds of the studiednurses had moderate level of stress; more than two thirds of the studied nurses had severelevel of the stress. The majority of the studied subjects had accomplished fair quality gradewhile one quarter had accomplish poor quality grade. Conclusion: It was concluded that therewere an inverse relation between stress level and quality of nursing care. Recommendations:organizing stress management program that focuses on different categories of nurses at allhierarchical levels, and organizing a system for continuing education program for nurses.