Causal and emotional factors related to work stress in ICU nursing staff. The importance of accurate measurement.
This study was designed to determine the degree of intervention of causal and emotional factors in work stress in intensive care unit (ICU) nursing staff. A questionnaire to assess stress causes (27) and associated emotions (33) was given to 123 people (85 registered nurses and 38 auxiliary nurses) aged 22-56, working in ICUs in different hospitals in Palma de Mallorca. Descriptive and factorial analyses were carried out. Respondents gave most stress causes a medium score (3.5-6.5 points), the highest values corresponding to staff shortage (mean = 6.71), bad management organisation (mean = 6.65) and little free time (mean = 6.5). These causes are grouped in seven factors which account for 65.51% of variance and are particularly related to organisational problems, training and personal relationships, work demands and physical and emotional overload. The most important emotions for this sample are: responsibility (mean = 6.61), impotence (mean = 6.23) and desire to excel (mean = 6.080). Such emotions are divided into seven factors which explain 65.31% of the variance and define states of personal satisfaction, depersonalisation, anxiety, low self-esteem, helplessness and arrogance. Surprisingly, the main factor with the value 5.08 and a variance of 15.42%, corresponds to positive or pleasant emotions. The results corroborate previous research findings on work stress, provide a simplified tool for assessing this and show the need to quantify the degree of such manifestations in the assessments.
Fornés Vives
J
J
Gallego Caminero
G
G
Barceló Oliver
M
M
Crespi Capó
M
M
Guttierrez Casado
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003422:Critical Care; D004644:Emotions; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D013030:Spain; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload