Stress and Job Satisfaction among Staff Nurses

Introduction: Nursing by itself is very stressful and nurses themselves are subject to stress from the demands of their career and need to know healthy ways of responding to maintain a person's physical, emotional, and social well-being. Stress has an implication not only on the health and personal life but also on the job satisfaction and the quality of care rendered to the patients.

Objective: This study was carried out to assess the stress and job satisfaction among staff nurses working in selected hospitals, Malappuram district, Kerala.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 90 staff nurses from two hospitals (45 staff nurses each from a private and government hospital). The hospitals were chosen by simple random method and the study subjects were chosen by purposive sampling method. Data were collected using a checklist that consists of items to assess the stress and job satisfaction.

Findings: Majority 61% were females, 59% were married, 48% were Muslims, and 70% were appointed on a permanent basis in job and 50% each in private and government sector. There is a significant difference in stress and job satisfaction based on the religion of the staff nurses. There is no significant difference in stress among the staff nurses working in private and government hospital, whereas there is a significant difference in the job satisfaction among the staff nurses in the two sectors. There is a high negative correlation between job stress and job satisfaction and it is significant at 0.01 level.

Conclusion: The job stress significantly influences the job satisfaction among the staff nurses albeit there is subjectivity and individual differences in the experience of stress. Identifying stress at the earliest and paying attention to mange and overcome it may have an impact on their personal life and professional outcome in terms of quality of service and patient care.