Nursing team stress in intensive therapy units

International Journal of Development Research

Volume: 
09
Article ID: 
14967
6 pages
Research Article

Nursing team stress in intensive therapy units

Apoana Câmara Rapozo, Alinne Suelma dos Santos Diniz, Kezia Cristina Batista dos Santos, Bárbara Regina Sousa da Silva, Samia Carine Castro Damascena, Monniely Mônica Costa Gonçalves, Ariadne Sales Fama Oliveira and Rosilda Silva Dias

Abstract: 

This study aimed to characterize the stress of the nursing team in an intensive care unit. It is an observational, descriptive, cross-sectional and quantitative study conducted between April and June 2016, with 93 professionals from the nursing team of three public hospitals in São Luís do Maranhão, Brazil. Three questionnaires, a semi-structured one composed by socioeconomic and occupational data, the Stress Inventory in Nursesand the Stress Symptom Scale were used. It was observed that 83.9% were women, 44.1% were aged between 26 and 35 years, 31.2% with income from 3 to 4 minimum wages, 4.3% presented low stress level, 72.04 % moderate and 23.65% high. The stressors were: "lack of material needed for work", "providing care for serious patients" and "working in an unhealthy environment". In the scale of physical symptoms: "muscular pains" and "constant fatigue" were the most predominant; the psychological ones were: "worrying excessively about things in general", "being more emotional" and "irritability". Conclusion: stress impairs the quality of life at work, physical, psychic and emotional health, interferes in the quality of service provided and in interpersonal relationships. Therefore, there is a need to implement strategies that reduce stressful stimuli in the work environment.

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