Assessment of job stress for nurses in psychiatric hospitals at Baghdad City

Abstract EN

Objectives : The aim of study is to assess job stress for nurses who are working in psychiatric hospitals in Baghdad city and its relation to socio demographic characteristics of the nurses.

Methodology : descriptive analytic study was conducted on 100 nurses were present in at three psychiatric hospitals in Baghdad city.

The data are collected through the use of constructed questionnaire which divided into two sections ; the 1st section included general information (demographical characteristic) of nurses.

The 2nd section was based on job stress scale ; it's consisting five domains which are : Dealing with patients and their families, Workload, problems with doctors, Problems with supervisors and Conflict relating peers.

The content validity of the instrument was established through penal of (11) experts.

Reliability of the questioner was 93 %.

Descriptive data analysis was done through frequency, percentage mean, standard deviation and inferential data analysis was done by Independent t-test, Analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Results : the results show the majority of nurses were middle age male, married, graduated from nursing institutes, have less than or equal 5 years of experienced in psychiatric hospitals, most of them participated in training courses related to psychiatric mental health care inside Iraq, while few of them participated in the courses outside Iraq.

Results revealed that both nurses (male & female) suffering from moderate level of stress in their work in all of domains and there was a significant relationship between nurse's stress and their training courses especially outside the country.

Conclusion : the results revealed that job stress in all domains were found moderate among nurses in psychiatric mental health hospitals because of lack of participation in training courses and especially outside country.

Recommendation : Reconsider and improving of employees in psychiatric nursing profession by establishing training courses (especially in psychiatry-mental health nursing) inside and outside of country in order to develop nurses' skills according to scientific programs through development of nurse's abilities and performance.