Occupational Stress among Nurses in the United States

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 Annotated Bibliography

Adib-Hajbaghery, M., Khamechian, M., & Alavi, N. M. (2012). Nurses perception of

occupational stress and its influencing factors: A qualitative study. Iranian Journal of Nursing

and Midwifery Research, 17(5), 352359.

This qualitative study was performed using the content analysis method. The study

demonstrated that nurses face occupational stress that leads to failure in duties and health

disorders. The research has shown that nursing stressors have been studied in some qualitative

studies; but nurses life experiences have been explored by few researchers. This qualitative

research intended to understand the nurses perceptions and experiences of job-related stress. By

employing the content analysis method as stated above, the data collection method used were

individual deep interviews with respondents being 19 nurses working in hospitals associated with

Kashan University of Medical Sciences.

Three categories resulted including nurses opinion from professional interest,

prioritizing career over family life, and the job stress. The first group included some

subcategories of shortage of nurses, being in persistently alarm situation, lack of

experience, social status and self-esteem, the patients conditions lack of appropriate

logistics, organizational irregularities, and adverse relations among colleagues affect the

nurses occupational level stress.

The research concluded that nurses defined work-related stress as a condition whereby a

nurse pressured so the quality of care and the nurses personal life is disturbed. Being under

constant pressure and low social self-esteem were some of the significant sources of

occupational stress. Good management within hospital subsystems, provision of proper logistics,
and improvement of the nurses and managers relationships may lessen the nursing profession

stressors. There were no possible shortcomings and bias in the study.

Akbar R.E., Elahi N, Mohammadi E., & Khoshknab M.F. (2016). What Strategies Do the Nurses

Apply to Cope With Job Stress?: A Qualitative Study. Global Journal of Health Science.

8(6):55-64. doi:10.5539/gjhs.v8n6p55.

Nursing staff encounter a lot of psychological, social, and physical social stressors at work.

Because the adverse effects of job stress on the health of this group of staff and afterward on the

quality of care services offered by nurses; study and ascertain how nurses cope with the job

stress during work is fundamental and can help prevent the incidence of unfavorable outcomes.

The focus of the research study is occupational stress among nurses working in emergency care.

The main objective of the research study was to explore the nurses experiences to identify the

strategies they used to manage and cope with the job stress.

In this qualitative study purposive sampling and content analysis approach was used. The

sample population included 18 nurses working in three hospitals. The data collection method was

conducted through face to face unstructured interview and was analyzed using conventional

content analysis approach. Results of the analysis indicated the data emerged six key themes on

the strategies used by nurses to manage and cope with job stress, which, include: seeking help,

self-controlling, preventive monitoring of situation, situational control of conditions, spiritual

coping, and avoidance and escape. The study expands the scope by explaining how each factor

plays a role in affecting how nurses perform and the challenges that come about in their

workplace when trying to cope with work-related stress.

Occupational stress is one of the key factors that motivates how workers react to other
challenges they encounter besides having to deliver on their roles in the workplace. Exploring

nurses experiences on how to cope with job stress emerged original strategies and context-

dependent and this knowledge can pave the way for nurses to increase self-awareness of how to

manage and cope with job stress. And could also be the foundation for planning and the

embracing of necessary measures by the authorities to acclimatize nurses with their profession

better and improves their social, physical, and psychological health which are vital elements to

fulfill high-quality nursing care. There were no possible shortcomings and bias in the study.

Ali Mohammad, M. (2013). Occupational Stress and Turnover intention: Implications for

Nursing Management. International Journal for Health Policy Management. 1(2), 169-176.

The research was conducted to investigate the levels of occupational stress amongst

hospital nurses in Isfahan, Iran. Occupational stress among nurses has been investigated overtime

because researchers have attempted to base based on the previous studies. Occupational stress is

prevalent in the workplace for nurses in the hospital setting, according to this research. It is

proved that a particular stress level is important to assuring that people do better in their work.

Notably, this study also sought to explore the correlation between their intent to leave the

hospital and occupational stress. The research was cross-sectional in nature whereby a

questionnaire was used as the data collection tool to collect data from 296 nurses.

The results indicated that nurses encounter challenges in their workplace and as a result

their levels of motivation are greatly affected by the nature of challenges they come across. A

third of the respondents rated their occupational stress high with the major sources of stress

being burnout, work overload, work inequality, lack of promotion, low pay, staff shortage, and

lack of management support. Higher levels of stress became accountable for low motivation of
nurses while the resulting burnout was believed to be as a result of duties they carryout daily.

The study indicated that hospital managers should come up with suitable strategies and policies

to decrease occupational stress and as a result nurses retention. There were no possible

shortcomings and bias in the study.

Ketelaar S.M., Nieuwenhuijsen K, Frings-Dresen M.H.W., & Sluiter J.K. (2015). Exploring

novice nurses needs regarding their work-related health: a qualitative study. International

Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health. 88(7):953-962. doi:10.1007/s00420-015-

1022-5.

This qualitative study sought to investigate Dutch novice nurses experiences and needs

concerning occupational health support to check work-related health problems and to keep them

well-functioning. The methodology used was a qualitative interview study which was conducted

with eight newly qualified nurses and six nursing students. The interviews covered occupational

health support needs, nurses experiences with the link between health and work, and received

occupational health support. The grounded theory approach was used in data were analysis.

Results indicated that participants reported experiences with occupational health

problems early in their career and defined experiences with how health problems lead to

suboptimal work functioning. Occupational health support needs psychosocial support and

included knowledge during nursing education, for example, through career counseling and

paying attention to dealing with shift work. Also, the nurses reported a need for psychosocial

support and knowledge at the start of their new job in the hospital or clinical placement.

Additionally, the nurses reported that occupational health support requires a more general place
at work through offering knowledge, by giving advice on psychosocial support, physical support,

and proper lifting position.

Occupational health support for novice nurses is vital, since they already experience

occupational health problems and suboptimal work functioning due to health problems early in

their career and while still in training to be a nurse. Novice nurses should be given more

knowledge and support to help them stay healthy and well-functioning in their work. This is a

joint responsibility of nurse educators, the employer and occupational health services.