Nurses Coping with Stressful Situations—A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Nursing belongs to the group of professions particularly exposed to stress. Since the ability to cope with stress is an important aspect of mental health, the aim of this study was to identify the types of nurses’ behaviours in terms of different coping styles used when dealing with work-related and psychosocial stress. The study was conducted among 1223 Polish nurses by means of a diagnostic survey, using the Coping in Stressful Situations Questionnaire (CISS), the Generalised Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) and a questionnaire of the author’s own design. Three types of nurses were distinguished: Type 1 (non-harmonious/organised)—nurses with lower professional education, longer work experience, at least average severity of stress related to working conditions, the lowest GSES scores, and worse psychophysical condition, who focused on their own emotional state when faced with stressful situations. Type 2 (harmonious)—nurses with higher education, the lowest intensity of work-related stresses, the highest GSES scores, positive self-reported psycho-physical condition, most often using the task-oriented coping style in stressful situations. Type 3 (non-harmonious/disorganised)—nurses with shorter length of service in the profession, the highest intensity of work-related stress, average GSES scores, and poorer self-reported psycho-physical condition. The presented results may provide a basis for preventive measures to minimise stress and increase competence in coping strategies, thus contributing to improved psychological and physical well-being of nurses.

Analysis of the Level of Stress and Methods of Coping with Stress among the Nursing Staff

“…Nurses belonging to the harmonious type had a higher level of education. The higher the educational level of nurses, the more often they used the task-oriented stress coping style [ 38 ].…”

Sense of self-efficacy of nursing staff and their willingness to write prescriptions and prescribe medicines

“…A high sense of self-efficacy is linked to the perception of obstacles arising at work. Such individuals are much better able to cope with difficult situations and improve their skills [10].…”

Sense of generalised self-efficacy and body mass index, diet health quality and pro-health behaviours of nursing students and active professional nurses

“…The research among active nurses and nursing students primarily concerned the relationship between GSE and the ability to cope with stress. In these studies, it was shown that people with a higher level of self-efficacy were more resistant to stress and coped better in difficult situations, because they used effective coping strategies more frequently [8,12,21,32]. Sense of self-efficacy was also found to be related to the quality of sleep and adherence to the Mediterranean diet among Spanish nursing students [33].…”

“…On the other hand, the environment of health care workers, including nurses, has a high level of knowledge about the determinants and threats to health, and can participate in the health education of patients, influencing the modification of their health behaviors [9,10]. In research on the subject, the need to implement health promotion strategies has been demonstrated, including coping with stress, improving mental and physical health as well as quality of life among nursing staff [11,12]. In studies, the prevalence of nutritional errors has been shown as well as other anti-health behaviors that reduce the health potential of health-care workers, including nurses, doctors and students of medical faculties, those with exposure to psychological stress, low levels of physical activity, bad eating habits and other lifestyle aspects [5,6,8,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21].…”