Depression, Anxiety, Stress and Workplace Stressors among Nurses in Tertiary Health Care Settings

Chronic job stress adversely impacts both mental health of nurses and patient care. There is paucity of data regarding workplace stressors and negative emotions among nurses.

To assess depression, anxiety and stress among nurses and analyse their association with workplace stressors.

A hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted in two tertiary care hospitals.

Four hundred and thirty one nurses completed nurses rated depression, Anxiety and Stress instrument (DASS-21) and a questionnaire probing perceived workplace stressors on a 4 point Likert scale . The stressors across subgroups of workareas were compared.

Association between stress, anxiety or depression and workplace stressors were analysed using binary logistic regression.

50.8% of nurses had stress; 74% had anxiety; 70.8% had depression. 79.1% had at least one of them. Stressed, anxious or depressed nurses were more concerned about lack of job satisfaction and conflicts with supervisors. Work-place stressors varied with work areas: private hospital, no job satisfaction, conflicts with doctors and patients; government hospital, acquiring infectious diseases; ICUs, inadequate salary; non-ICUs, odour and sounds in workplace and conflicts with patients.

Prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress was high. Workplace stressors varied across different working areas. Interventions need are to be tailored accordingly.