Self-Perceived Work Stress between Emergency Department Nurses and General Wards Nurses

Abstract

Background: Nursing profession is a very stressful profession and mounting evidence indicates that it may be on the rise in death and dying, conflict with physicians,  inadequate emotional preparation, problems relating to peers, problems relating to supervisors, workload,  uncertainty concerning treatments, 8) patients and families and, discrimination especially among nurses who work in emergency department nursing. The current study aimed to assess self-perceived work stress between emergency department nurses' (ED) and general wards nurses (GW).

Method: The study was conducted by selecting a non-probability (purposive) sample.  Ninety six   nurses included in the current study; (48) work in emergency department and (48) in general ward. By interviewing each nurse, we prepared a draft of 57 items within nine domain (Expanded Nursing Stress Scale) questionnaire.

Results: The assessment of stress was moderate for both ED nurses and GW nurses with mean of scores (2.00 and 2.47) respectively. The mean difference was high statistically significant (p-value <0.0001).

Conclusion: ED nurses reported a high level of occupational stress compared to GW nurses.