Investigating the Stress Level of Nurses Working at Emergency Care Services: A Pilot Study

Abstract Objectives: The purpose of this descriptive study is to determine the stress level of nurses working at emergency care services. Methods: 49 nurses working at the Emergency Care Services of four hospitals in Erzurum participated in the descriptive study that was conducted between April-May 2008. A questionnaire and Artan’s (1986) Organisational Stress Resources Scale was used to gather data for this study. Percentage, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis variance analysis were used to conduct data analysis. In terms of ethical principles, this study adhered to the information and volunteerism principles. Results: 69.4% of nurses participating in this study were women, 55.1% were married, 51.0% were Medical vocational high school graduates, and 87.8% had 0-5 years of Emergency Care Nursing experience. The average age of nurses was 30.1± 5.80. The “Organisational Role” sub-scale had the highest score mean of “Organisational Stress Resources (OSR)” and Organisational Discomfort (OD) (OSR: 18.67± 4.61; OD 18.79±7.60), the “Nature of the Job” sub-scale had the highest score mean of Organisational Stress (OS) (OS 10.14±6.74), the “Organisational Relations” sub-scale had the lowest score mean of “Organisational Stress Resources (OSR)” (OSR: 8.38±4.06), the “Career Development” sub-scale determined the OS score mean (OS 1.20±5.64), and the “Nature of the Job” sub-scale determined the OD score mean (OD 12.18±4.53). Conclusions: Study results concluded that stressors caused by organisational roles and stressors caused by the nature of the job (work load, information load, and time limitation) create more stress for emergency care nurses