title: Causal and emotional factors related to work stress in ICU nursing staff. The importance of accurate measurement.
abstract: 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.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fornés Vives
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gallego Caminero
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barceló Oliver
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Crespi Capó
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Guttierrez Casado
mesh_terms: 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