A Study to Assess the Factors affecting Occupational Stress in Intensive Care Unit Nurses at Tertiary Care Hospital, Karad

Background Because of workload and working environment seen in hospitals health professionals frequently suffer from stress. When working system is in demand of more efficiency than individual resource stress is felt. Perception of stress occurs when there is mismatch between the expectations and accomplishment. In India prevalence of occupational stress amongst nurses has been estimated to be 87.4 %. The present study was planned for assessing factors affecting occupational stress among Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses. Material& Methods The present study, descriptive survey design type was conducted in 30 bedded Medical ICU and 16 bedded Surgical ICU of tertiary care hospital to assess the factors leading to affecting occupational stress among ICU nurses. Using convenience sampling, a total 58 nurses were chosen for study. For collection of data structural questionnaires were used. Results Maximum number (58.62 %) of nurses had greater stress due to Difficulty in expressing feelings or opinions about job conditions to their immediate seniors (58.62 %), too much workload to be completed in short time (51.72 %), lack of appropriate reward for good performance (51.72 %), interference of job pressures with family or personal life (48.27 %), inability to utilize own skills and talents to fullest extent at work (43.1 %) were factors reported which were responsible for workplace stress. Conclusion Nurses working in ICUs have occupational stress. Recruitment of sufficient nursing staff in ICU, keeping conducive working environment, reward for good work, time bound promotion as per ability, better nursing administration and evaluation, making available opportunity to express feelings about practical problems faced, good motivation are some of the measures that when implemented can help to reduced the stress among ICU nurses. This will also result into excellent personal and professional development.