A profile of occupational stress in nurses

Background: Occupational stress is common in nurses. Stress can impact the health of the nurses leading to somatic complaints. Aims and Objectives: (1) To determine the extent and causes of occupational stress among nurses at Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Hospital. (2) To compare the stress levels among nurses depending on their years of experience. (3) To study any correlation between stress levels and the extent of somatic complaints. Materials and Methods: Ninety-seven staff nurses without any preexisting psychiatric illness were evaluated for occupational stress using the Expanded Nursing Stress Scale. The extent of somatization was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire – 15, in a cross-sectional study. Cronbach's alpha, analysis of variance, and Spearman's correlation co-efficient test were applied to the data. Results: An internal consistency of 0.945 was noted using Cronbach's alpha. 51.5% nurses experienced mild, 34% experienced moderate, and 2.10% experienced severe stress. Conflicts with supervisors, patients, and their families and workload were the main causes of occupational stress while discrimination was the least affected domain. Nurses with 6–10 years of experience had maximum stress. The stress levels correlated with the extent of somatic complaints. Conclusions: Occupational stress is prevalent in nurses. It may be higher in nurses with lesser experience and it can be associated with somatic complaints.