Abstract
Nursing, by its nature, is an occupation subject to a high degree of stress. This profession involves working with people who are themselves suffering a considerable degree of stress. Occupational stress compromised quality of service delivery and also leads as employees’ burnout, turnover and absenteeism. The Objective of the study is to determine the level of occupational stress and associated factors among nurses. The study employed facility based cross sectional study was conducted from August 13 –September 02, 2018. All nurses who served at least for 6 months in Arsi zone public hospitals were asked using self-administered structured questionnaire. The collected data was checked manually, edited, coded and entered into Epi-data version 3.1 and finally it was exported in to statistical package for social science version 24 for cleaning and analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to estimate frequency percent and mean. Dependent variables (occupational stress) were computed based on the respondents having average score of mean and above in expanded nursing stress scale. Then, associations between independent and dependent variables were analyzed first using bivariate binary logistic regression. Variables that had p<0.25 on bivariate binary logistic regression were entered into multivariable binary logistic regression and adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with 95% CI were reported. The study finding showed that 202 (53%) with (95% CI: 48.2-58.1) of nurses were occupationally stressful. Factors significantly associated with occupational stress among nurses were sex of respondents (female: AOR=2.37, 95% CI: 1.41, 3.97), marital status (ever married: AOR=2.49, 95% CI: 1.35, 4.60), Role ambiguity (nurses who had Role ambiguity: AOR=3.01, 95% CI: 1.79, 5.05) and working hours. (≥8hrs hours per day: AOR=2.85, 95% CI: 1.10, 7.36). In this study, more than half of nurses had occupational stress, Thus, Arsi zone public hospitals collaborative with concerned stakeholders to design stress reduction program for tackling occupational stress among nurses.
Highlights
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines occupational stress as “the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker [1]
This study revealed that the prevalence of occupational stress among nurses were was 202 (53%) with which was much higher than the studies conducted in Isfahan, Iran stated that the prevalence of stress was (34.9%) [31]. and in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia the prevalence of occupational stress among nurses were (37.8%) [14]
This study show significant association between sex of the respondents and occupational stress that was Female nurses were twice more likely to suffer from occupational stress than male nurses (AOR: 2.371, 95% CI: 1.413, 3.976)
Summary
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) defines occupational stress as “the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker [1]. Nurses are direct caregivers and caring is an interpersonal procedure defined by expert nursing, interpersonal sensitivity and intimate relationships, including positive communication and implementation of professional knowledge and skills. Sometimes nurses are required to serve for a long period of time without having adequate rest [2, 3]. As a result, nursing occupation is subject to a high degree of stress. The profession involves working with people who are themselves suffering a considerable degree of stress. Sometimes patients can be difficult, frightened and angry. and nurses can find themselves responding with a growing
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