Understanding stress in the operating room: a step toward improving the work environment

Job-related stress is an important factor predicting staff satisfaction and position turnover among nursing staff, particularly in the operating room. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived amount of stress elicited by events in the perioperative environment, the frequency of those events, and the impact of those events on the perceived stress of operating room nurses (ORNs) and operating room technologists (ORTs). The Survey on Stress in the OR instrument, which was used to query the subjects, exhibited high internal consistency of all items. The findings indicated that the ORNs and the ORTs exhibited remarkable similarities between stressful events perceived as high and low impact. The two groups agreed that the highest impact stressful event was "pressure to work more quickly." Using the results of this study, OR administrators may be able to redesign the OR environment to minimize the impact of stressful events and thereby improve job satisfaction and minimize nursing staff turnover.