Identifying sources of stress and job satisfaction in the nursing environment

As nursing has previously been identified as a stressful occupation (Tyler and Cushway 1992; 1995), sources of job stress and levels of job satisfaction were investigated in a study of occupational stress with 129 Victorian nurses. The study aimed to identify what the nurses perceived as the major causes of stress in the workplace using a standardized questionnaire, Gray-Toft and Anderson's Nursing Stress Scale (NSS), and by way of written reports. Level of job satisfaction was measured using the Nursing Stress Index (Harris Hingley and Cooper 1988). Results showed that the nurses rated their workload as highly stressful in terms of both frequency of its occurrence and its perceived effect upon themselves. As expected, higher levels of reported nursing stress were associated with lower levels of job satisfaction. Analyses of the written descriptions of a recent stressful work episode provided by 66 of the nurses included examples of relevant nursing stressors that were not covered by the NSS. Findings from the qualitative data are also discussed in terms of the implications for nursing practice arising from the impact of workload, and professional interpersonal conflicts.