Comparision of perceived stress between nurses working in medical and psychiatric wards

To examine and contrast the levels of perceived non-specific and work-related stress and sources of work-related stress between medical and psychiatric nurses.

The comparative cross-sectional study was conducted at one psychiatric and three general hospitals in Lahore, Pakistan, from November 2014 to February 2015. Data was collected using a self-report survey administered to psychiatric and medical nurses. Instruments used to collect data comprised a demographic sheet, the perceived stress scale and the Devilliers, Carson and Leary stress scale. Data was analysed using SPSS 17.

Of the 134 subjects, 49(44%) were psychiatric nurses and 85(63.43%) were medical nurses. The two groups were significantly different in terms of age, marital status and years of experience (p<0.05). Medical nurses reported higher perceived stress than psychiatric nurses (p=0.001). Age was positively associated with non-specific perceived stress (p=0.006). Nurses with more work experience reported lower scores (p=0.002). Single nurses had higher perceived stress (p=0.014) and non-mothers reported higher stress levels (p=0.036). With regard to work-related stress, medical nurses reported significantly higher scores in the domains of staff-related issues (p=0.009), future prospects (p=0.026) and job satisfaction (p=0.029).

Medical nurses experienced higher non-specific and work related stress than nurses working in mental health facilities.