Abstract:
Introduction: Stress can be defined as a physical or psychological stimulus that can produce mental tension or physiological reactions that may lead to illness. Work related stress can result in workers being less productive, may impact on the quality of services provided by health professionals, and may also place nurses at more risk of making errors. The failure to identify these problems amongst nurses at an early stage is thus likely to have a major impact on the effectiveness of nursing services and patient care.
Objective: The aim of this study was to assess work-related stress and associated factors among nurses working in Governmental hospitals of Harari People's National Regional State, Eastern Ethiopia.
Methods: Institutional based quantitative cross sectional study design was conducted among 367 nurses from march15/2015 to march 30/2015 . stratified sampling followed by simple random sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Data was collected using pretested and structured self-administered questionnaire. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression model was fitted to identify associated factors with work-related stress among nurses. An adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was computed to determine the level of significance.
Result: The prevalence of work-related stress among nurses was found to be 66.2%. Nurses who reared child were 2 times more likely to experience work-related stress than those who did not rear child (AOR= 2.08, 95% CI: 1.17,3.69). Nurses working in intensive care units were 4.5 times more likely to report work-related stress (AOR=4.52, 95% CI: 1.15, 17.69).Respondents who worked rotating shifts were 2.5 times more likely to experience work-related stress than fixed shifts(AOR=2.50, 95% CI: 1.41, 4.44).Respondents who reported chronic medical illness were 2.6 times more likely to suffer from work-related stress than without illness(AOR=2.62, 95% CI:1.19,5.74).
Conclusion and recommendation: The prevalence of work related stress among nurses in the study area was relatively high. Work-related stress was associated with child rearing, working units, work shift and chronic medical illness. This finding suggested that the need of organizational interventions to reduce stress among nurses such as; rescheduling work shift ,reducing work load and so on.
