title: Nurses' workload and its relation with physiological stress reactions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to analyze the relation between the workload and the physiological stress reactions among nurses working at a hospital service.
  
  
  METHODS
  cross-sectional, correlational, quantitative study, involving 95 nurses, in 2011 and 2012. Spearman's bivariate Correlation Test was used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  most subjects are female, between 23 and 61 years old and working between 21 and 78 hours per week. The most frequent physiological reactions were back pain, fatigue/exhaustion, stiff neck and stomach acidity, with 46.3% of the subjects presenting low and 42.1% moderate physiological stress responses. No correlation was found between the workload and the physiological stress responses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  although most of the nurses work more than 36 hours/week, physiologically, they do not present high reaction levels in response to stress. These workers deal with conflicts in the vertical and horizontal relations between professionals, family members and patients. In that sense, taking care of professionals who offer health services can be a fundamental strategy, as good user care mainly depends on healthy teams.
authors.affiliation: Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rita de Cássia de Marchi Barcellos
authors.initials: Rde C
authors.lastname: Dalri
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de Goiás, Jataí, GO, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luiz Almeida
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.affiliation: Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
authors.forename: Aida Maria Oliveira Cruz
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Mendes
authors.affiliation: Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Maria Lúcia do Carmo Cruz
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Robazzi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009729:Nursing; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult