Workplace stressors of nursing staff at a Hospital in High Specialty in Mexico

Abstract

Introduction: every day the nursing professional is exposed go situations that can trigger stress as when dealing with death, the suffering of people, the workload and the possible conflicts when dealing with interdisciplinary staff. This research was conducted at the Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía Manuel Velasco Suárez, which provides the third-level of medical care and is located in the south of Mexico City.

Objective: to identify the level of stress and the workplace stressors which nurses are exposed to.

Methodology: through a cross-sectional descriptive survey, the sample was of 50 nurses who answered a self-administered questionnaire composed by 32 closed questions in Lickert scale. The Nurses are attached to the hospitalization services.

Results: 52% of the nurses have a moderate level of stress; the 46% have a low level of stress against the 2% that have a high level of stress. The three highest average stressors were in first place painful procedures for the patient (X= 1.88) secondly, to witness the suffering of a patient and body aches after a day of work (X = 1.82) in third place is the lack of proper staff to cover the health care unit (X = 1.7).

Conclusions: it was possible to identify the most common workplace stressors as well as the level of stress which the nursing personnel is exposed to in hospitalization units. Nurses cope with stress in different moments of their daily work activities. When working for the patients they are more likely to have a moderate level of stress, which might be harmful for their health, and may be a cause of poor performance on the tasks they perform.