Job Stress and Coping Behaviors among Nursing Staff in the Intensive Care Units of a Regional Hospital in the Eastern Taiwan

Abstract

目的：此研究在了解台灣東部某區域醫院103位加護單位護理人員之工作壓力和調適 行為。材料與方法：以結構性問卷為主，開放性問題為輔，進行資料收集，回收率為 95.14%。結果：護理人員呈現中度工作壓力，感受最高的壓力題為「當病人需要醫生 時（如病情有變化、或有問題），而醫生遲遲不來」。護理人員之調適行為以「常使 用」的人佔最多，而最常使用的調適行為是「告訴自己絕不讓同樣的事情再發生」。 壓力表與調適行為量表經因素分析後分別萃取出4個因素，並各自形成4個次量表。之 後進行典型相關分析發現壓力與調適行為之間並未達到統計上的顯著相關，表示護理 人員在面對工作壓力時，並不特定使用何種調適行為，而是各種調適行為交互使用。 而護理人員以年齡較小、護理年資資淺及家中排行老二者感受較大的工作壓力。護理 人員以有過的工作經驗者較易使用逃避問題的方法來調適；且未婚比已婚、擁有護理 師執照比只有護士執照，均較常使用補償性的調適情緒。結論：根據本研究的結果可 提供護理行政主管擬定政策的依據，協助加護護理人員以較正向的調適行為來面對工 作壓力。惟有妥善處理護理人員因工作壓力所引起的問題，才能落實提高病患照護品 質的目的。 Objective: This study investigated job stress and coping behaviors among 103 intensive care unit ( ICU) nurses at a regional hospital in eastern Taiwan. Materials and Methods: A structured questionnaire that included several open-ended questions was used to collect data. The response rate was 95.14%. Results: The average stress score of the ICU nursing staff was classified as medium stress. The largest stressor was “patients needed medical attention but doctors could not come immediately”.The most frequently adopted coping behavior was “ telling myself not to let the same thing happen again”. Factor analysis was used to form stress and coping behavior subscales, and canonical correlation analysis was then used to examine the relationship among these subscales. The results indicate there were no significant relationships among these subscales. In addition, participants who were younger, less experienced, or the second child of the family had significantly greater job stress. Nurses who had previous working experience were more likely to employ avoidance coping behaviors. Furthermore, nurses who were single and had a professional registered nurse license tended to use compensatory coping more frequently than others. Conclusions: The result of this study may provide information useful for nursing administrators to design programs to assist ICU nursing staff to deal with job stress . Programs to help ICU nursing staff to properly handle the difficulties generated by job pressures are needed to improve the quality of nursing care.