The effect of work specialty, demographic variables, and social support upon the perceived job stress of military nurses

The present study sought: (a) to investigate differences in the type of stressors and level of job stress reported by nurses working in ICU/CCU, Medicine/Surgery, and other specialty areas; (b) to examine the relationship between perceived job stress and social support; and (c) to determine whether the demographic characteristics, age, sex, marital status, level of educational training, and military rank, had any moderating effects upon job stress. A sample of 231 military nurses completed a demographic inventory, the Nursing Job Stress Instrument, and the Social Support Questionnaire. Social support, clearly the most important variable examined by this study, was negatively correlated with job stress. All nurses seemed to experience the most stress as a result of inadequate staffing. However, no support was found for the idea that critical care nurses experience greater or different stressors than ward nurses. All of the demographic variables were unrelated to job stress