WORK RELATED STRESS AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG NURSES WORKING IN HADIYA ZONE PUBLIC HOSPITALS, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Background: Nurses all over the world work under stress as the nature of their work requires and this is due to incredible and regular contact with patients who have different diseases. Nursing, by virtue of its nature, is a profession subjected to high degree of stress. Even though the studies identified different factors, the identified factors were not enough and clear. The previous studies which was conducted in our country have not examined nurse’s work stress in accordance with post basic training. Therefore, this study identified the gap by assessing the work related stress and associated factors among nurses working in Hadiya Zone Public Hospitals, Southern Ethiopia. Objective: To assess work related stress and associated factors among nurses working in Hadiya Zone Public Hospitals, Southern Ethiopia from March 1 to 30, 2019 Method: Institution based quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted among 405 randomly selected nurses working in Hadiya Zone Public Hospitals from March 1 to 30, 2019. Data were collected using pre tested self-administered questionnaire. The collected data were entered using Epi-data version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Multivariable logistic regression analyses was done to identify factors having association with work related stress. Finally, variables whose p<0.05 considered as cutoff point for statistically significance. Result: In this study 56 %( 95%CI 50.9-61.2) of the respondents were stressed in their work. Being female (AOR=1.94, 95% CI 1.19-3.16), rotating shift (AOR = 2.06, 95% CI 1.31-3.25), intensive care unit (AOR = 3.42, 95% CI 1.20-9.73) and post basic training (AOR =0.55, 95% CI 0.34-0.92) were found to be associated with work related stress. Conclusion: The result of this study revealed that work related stress among nurses was high in the study area. Being female, rotating shift, intensive care unit and post basic training were factors that affects level of work related stress. Therefore, Hadiya Zone health department administrators need to pay special attention and shall provide job orientation about possible nature of each unit during hiring of new employees, during rotation and even on job trainings on how to cope with or how to manage stressful events in the hospital or work environment.