Occupational Stress, Mental Health and Attitude towards Mental Illness of Nursing Staff Working in General and Psychiatric Hospital:A Comparative Study

Nurses are identified as one of the professional groups with high level of job related stress and related issues. The magnitude of the problem this segment faces is very intensive as a large number of them are women. They are victimised for multiple roles in the home and hospital. Stressors for nurses are always been identified with workload, dual role and pressures which are associated with demands of the existing working environment. The nature of illness/diseases a nurse dealing with has significant effects on the stress and mental health level. Healthcare professionals dealing with psychiatric illness and other chronic/traumatic conditions faces more stress while comparing to the other domains of healthcare. The present study is a cross sectional hospital based study carried out at four centres and 100 samples were collected by judgmental sampling method which consisted of 50 female nursing staff from general hospital and same number from psychiatric hospitals. A socio-demographic data sheet along with General Health Questionnaire was administered and those who have satisfactory health have been considered as further samples. Mental health, stress level, and attitude towards mental illness were analysed. The results shows that psychiatric nursing staff scored higher in overall occupational stress index and in the subs-domains of role overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, role unreasonable group and political pressure compared to general nursing staff. Also the mental health inventory total score is negatively correlated with role overload sub- domain of occupational stress index scale. Present study implicates the need of comprehensive psycho-social management plans for the professionals working in psychiatric hospitals.