Coping Strategies Used by Hospital Emergency Nurses

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the Coping Strategies used by hospital emergency nurses. Method: qualitative study with a descriptive exploratory approach, conducted with 15 nurses from an emergency hospital department in the public healthcare network of a municipality in the state of Bahia, Brazil. The semi-structured in-depth interview was used. Data were collected from April to June 2017. The findings are based on the collective subject discourse method, supported by the theoretical Coping framework. Results: the presence of stress generating situations is significant in the work of hospital emergency nurses, causing social, labor and psychosomatic repercussions to emerge emotional or psychiatric disorders that affect the body's functionality, including physical repercussions. The development of Coping Strategies arises in the face of the need to cope with stressors. They involve the use of personal, social and spiritual resources, and reveal themselves in positive and/or negative responses. The discourse revealed that, when focused on the problem (management of the stressor), they seek to strengthen social support, plan their daily activities and establish a dialogic and mutual help relationship with the team; when centered on emotion (regulation of emotions or distress), they exercise the search and maintenance of emotional control, practice self-control, move away from the stressor element and invest in physical activity and leisure practices. Conclusion: the nurse employs different Coping Strategies which are essential and indispensable to avoid increasing stress levels and triggering negative repercussions. The strategies undertaken are now centered on the problem, or emotion.