Perceived stress and coping strategies among ICU nurses in government tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

BACKGROUND No study has examined the stress level and coping strategies among critical care nurses in Saudi Arabia. OBJECTIVES Examine perceived stress and coping behaviors among nurses in intensive care units in Saudi Arabia, and the influence of coping mechanisms on stress. DESIGN Descriptive cross-sectional. SETTING Two tertiary training hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Nurses from cardiac, surgery and pediatric intensive care units responded to an online survey. Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10) and the Brief COPE Inventory were used as primary research tools. Multivariate methods were used to analyze the data. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Stress levels, coping strategies, and associated factors. SAMPLE SIZE 154 nurses. RESULTS The majority of the respondents reported a moderate level of stress in the past month (87.0%). Mean (SD) scores for nurses working in the cardiac ICU indicated significantly higher levels of stress compared to surgical ICU (18.18 [3.88] vs 6.17 [3.21], P =.025). Belief in religion was the most common coping behavior while the use of substances was the lowest (mean scores [SD] 6.70 [ 1.72] vs 2.22 [0.81]). In the multivariate analysis, behavioral disengagement ( P =.016) and self-blame ( P <.001) intensified the PSS-10 score, whereas acceptance ( P =.048) reduced the PSS-10 score. CONCLUSION The additional knowledge that behavioral disengagement and blaming aggravate stress can serve as the basis in formulating work-related stress reduction strategies among nurses caring for critical patients. LIMITATIONS The use of self-reports, convenience sampling, and selected demographic factors may have limited the scope and generalizability of the findings and induced social desirability bias.

Psychometric properties of Brief-COPE inventory among nurses

“…A number of studies has used Brief-COPE to examine nurses coping strategies (Alharbi & Alshehry, 2019;Fathi & Simamora, 2019;McMeekin, Hickman Jr, Douglas, & Kelley, 2017), however, in the absence of validation study, the results reported may be problematic and disputed. In particular, the CFA models using structure from previous studies did not achieve good t, observed high cross-loadings, and Cronbach's alpha of individual subscales were inadequate (although most were above 0.5),…”

Factors Associated With Mental Health Disorders Among University Students in France Confined During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“… 12 Thresholds used in the literature consider the stress level low for scores between 0 and 13; moderate, between 14 and 26; and high, greater than 26. 13 , 14 We measured depression using the 13-item Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-13). Each question is rated from 0 to 3 to obtain a score ranging from 0 to 39.…”

“… 18 Outcomes were the presence of severe self-reported symptoms, ie, the presence of suicidal thoughts or a high score on at least 1 scale (ie, IES-R >36; PSS-10 >26; BDI-13 >15; or STAI-Y2 >55). 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 …”

Perceived Stress and Associated Factors in Russian Medical and Dental Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in North-West Russia

“…A higher total score indicated a higher perceived stress. Although PSS is not a diagnostic instrument and there is no predetermined cut-off for PSS score [30], some studies used PSS scores of 0-13, 14-26, and 27-40 points to assess low, moderate, and high perceived stress, respectively [32][33][34].…”