Job Stress and Personality Traits:A Comparative Study among Private and Government Nurses in Odisha

Nursing is, by its very nature, an occupation subject to a high degree of stress. Many nursing tasks are mundane and unrewarding. Many are by normal standards distasteful, even disgusting, others are often degrading; some are simply frightening. Workplace stress has long been recognized as a challenge for the nursing profession. There is limited research exploring the personality characteristics of nurses within clearly defined nursing specialty areas. The present study aimed to compar epersonality trait and stress level of nurses serving in government and private hospitals. The descriptive survey has been used as the research method in this study. The sample of 60 qualified nurses (30 Government and 30 Private Nurses) was selected using random cluster sampling. Data were collected by using Nursing Stress Scale and NEO Five Factor-3 Inventory. Significant differences were found among government and private nurses on various dimensions of stress level like conflict with physician, lack of staff support, conflict with other nurse and supervisor and highly significant differences were found on workload. However, no significant relationship was found between stress and personality traits. No significant difference of different dimensions of personality traits among private and government nurses was found. Results also indicated that all the five personality traits are good predictors for stress as well as among nurses at 0.001 levels. However, no significant relationship between personality characteristics and levels of nursing stress among government and private nurses was found. 76.7% of private nurses reported that they experience medium level stress and only 23.3% of them experience low level of stress. 73.3% government nurses reported that they experience low level stress where as only 26.7% of them experience medium level of stress.