A study of job stress, stress coping strategies, and job satisfaction for nurses working in middle-level hospital operating rooms.

BACKGROUND: Understanding the interactive relationships between demographics and work-related variables, job stress, job stress coping strategies, and job satisfaction for operating room (OR) nurses is important. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the stressors, the stress coping strategies, and the job satisfaction of nursing staff who worked in the OR and to evaluate influence of demographic characteristics on job stress, stress coping strategies, and job satisfaction. METHODS: A cross-sectional research design was used to collect data. Participants included 121 nurses with more than 6 months of work experience at seven hospitals in Yunlin and Chiayi Counties. Data were collected from March through May 2008. One hundred twelve questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 92.56%. The questionnaire included four parts designed to gather data on demographics and work-related information, job stress, stress coping strategies, and job satisfaction. RESULTS: Major findings of this study were as follows: (a) stress level and frequency perception of OR nurses were significantly related to the type of hospital; (b) the most intense stressor perceived by OR nurses was patient safety; (c) the stressor most frequently perceived by OR nurses was administrative feedback; (d) although all job stressors were positively related to destructive stress coping strategies, professional status, patient safety, and OR environment were also positively related to constructive stress coping strategies; (e) factors including work rewards, OR environment, and administrative management of job satisfaction were inversely related to destructive stress coping strategies; and (f) factors including work rewards, OR environment, and administrative management of job satisfaction were inversely related to all job stressors. CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Major suggestions of this study include the following: (a) hospitals should ensure set standard operating procedures for the OR, strengthen the designed-in security of the OR working environment, and provide adequate safety protection equipment to safeguard OR staff and patients; (b) the OR department should increase the quantity and the quality of stress relief courses; (c) the OR department should improve the OR environment and the administrative management skills; and (d) the OR department should offer self-esteem-related training programs to assist OR nursing staff to adopt constructive stress coping strategies.