Abstract
BackgroundStress, which can be attributed to household and workplace stressors, is prevalent among nurses. However, these stressors’ attribution may differ between hospital and non-hospital nurses. It is currently unknown whether there are significant differences in the sociodemographic and occupational characteristics between hospital and non-hospital nurses which may potentially influence the type and magnitude of stressors, and subsequently the stress status. Therefore, this study aims to estimate the prevalence of stress and compare the roles of sociodemograhic characteristics, occupational profiles, workplace stressors and household stressors in determining the stress status between hospital and non-hospital female nurses in Malaysia.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted among randomly-selected 715 female nurses in Malaysia using pencil-and-paper self-reported questionnaires.ResultsThe majority of participants were ever married (87.0%), having children (76.2%), and work in hospital setting (64.8%). The level of household stressors was generally similar between hospital and non-hospital nurses. However, hospital nurses significantly perceived higher level of workplace stressors. Shift work is significantly associated with higher level of household and workplace stressors among nurses in both groups. The level of stress was significantly higher among hospital nurses. Both household and workplace stressors explained about 40% of stress status in both hospital and non-hospital nurses.ConclusionHospital nurses are at higher risk of having stressors and stress as compared to non-hospital nurses, probably due to higher proportion of them involved in shift work. Hospital nurses should be given high priority in mitigating stress among nurses.
Highlights
Stress, which can be attributed to household and workplace stressors, is prevalent among nurses
The proportion of participants working in shift and holding a job position as a community nurse or a staff nurse was significantly higher among hospital
The principal findings are: (1) there is not much difference in household stressors between both groups, (2) hospital nurses had significantly higher levels of workplace stressors, (3) the level of stress is higher amongst hospital nurses, (4) shift work is associated with higher household and workplace stressors among hospital nurses, (5) nurse managers in hospital settings are associated with higher level of workplace stressors and stress, (6) marriage is associated with higher household stressors among nurses in both groups, (7) older age and a junior position are associated with higher stress levels among non-hospital nurses, (8) both workplace and household stressors are significantly associated with stress status with 40% explained variance
Summary
Stress, which can be attributed to household and workplace stressors, is prevalent among nurses. These stressors’ attribution may differ between hospital and non-hospital nurses. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of stress and compare the roles of sociodemograhic characteristics, occupational profiles, workplace stressors and household stressors in determining the stress status between hospital and non-hospital female nurses in Malaysia. Nurses, who are mostly women [6], are more likely to be exposed to household/family demands such as childcare and household chores [7] Both workplace and household demands results in a build-up stressors which are associated with physiological and/or psychological burden, which contributes to increased stress [3, 8]. Unmanaged stress can be harmful to a nurse’s health leading to unwanted consequences such as burnout [15] and work performance issues such as absenteeism or presenteeism [16]
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