Stress and the community mental health nurse: the development of a measure

The issue of stress amongst health care professionals is currently a major concern within the British National Health Service. It is important for researchers to develop both reliable and valid psychometric measures to assess occupational stress. This paper outlines the development and piloting of a measure of professional stress for community mental health nurses, the CPN Stress Questionnaire (Revised). Data on the reliability and validity of this new measure are presented. It is concluded that this measure has good psychometric properties. A range of possible research applications is outlined.