The Effects of Occupational Stress on Quality of Life and Associated Factors among Hospital Nurses in Iran

Abstract

Nurses deal with many crises at work. It is obvious that being exposed to stress for long, results in severe physical and mental complications and affects individual is welfare. This study was aimed at determining the quality of life (QOL) of nurses and whether there is any relation between occupational stress and QOL. This analytical-descriptive cross sectional study was carried out in University hospitals of Zanjan, Iran. 241 nurses were sampled using proportional to size stratified method. The data were collected by means of Iranian version of the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and a questionnaire on demographic information and work factors. Occupational stress was measured by Toft Gray and Anderson’s tool. The questionnaires were filled by nurses themselves and the data were analyzed by Spearman’s Correlation test, Kruskal-Wallis and one-way ANOVA and Enter-method Regression with SPSS 16.0 software. The results showed a high level of occupational stress among nurses, which adversely affected their quality of life. According to the results QOL of male and female nurses differ with men having a higher QOL and less occupational stress. 2 work factors, satisfaction and others positive attitude towards nursing, affected all dimensions of QOL and occupational stress. There was no significant correlation between QOL or occupational stress and factors like position, shift, ward, experience, time off, overtime hours, interest in desertion and education. According to harmful effects of occupational stress on nurses, cognitive-behavioral interventions, learning coping strategies are proposed.

Gender Differences In Resilience, Coping And Quality Of Life Of Oncology Nurses In Pakistan

“…It has positive outcome for patients as well as nurses. Several researches have reported poor quality of life in male and female nurses attributing reasons to work pressure and poor physical health (Jafari, Sadegi, Batebi, Hosseini, Ebrahimpoor, Shojaei & Vaezi, 2012).…”

Health-Related Quality of Life among University Healthcare Academics

“…Male respondents were having a better quality of life compared to female proven by the mean rank value from the statistical tests. The finding was supported by Jafari et al and Zhang et al [3,15]. Male had a higher quality of life in physical and emotional aspects compared tofemales.…”

“…Male had a higher quality of life in physical and emotional aspects compared tofemales. This is maybe due to the high amount of household tasks, commitment to family, and lack of time for entertainment for females [3,7,8]. Besides, Maarof et al [16] stated in their study that female academics hada lower HRQoL compared to male academics [16].…”

“…Healthcare academics who teach health-related courses are medical doctors, dentists,and pharmacists. In addition to their professional responsibilities, they also have their family needs in terms of healthcare, socioeconomic, education, and numerousother family matters [3]. All of these multiple roles could be a significant burden that may affect their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) [3].…”

“…In another study, it was stated that the quality of life associated with physical functioning, general health, and mental health dimensions [3]. These may be the reasons why males and females have a different level of quality of life and quality of life varied according to age [12].…”