Stress in critical care nurses: Actual and perceived

OBJECTIVE: To describe the stressful work experiences and the perception of stress in female critical care nurses, and to explore possible relationships between these variables. DESIGN: A descriptive, correlational study. SETTING: Two Canadian, university-affiliated, tertiary care hospitals. SUBJECTS: A convenience sample of 96 female nurses, with at least 1 year of critical care experience, currently working in adult intensive care units. INSTRUMENTS: Subjects were administered a demographic instrument, the Critical Care Nursing Stress Scale, and the Perceived Stress Scale. RESULTS: Ranking the stressful work situations revealed that patient care-related stressors ranked the highest overall. Although lack of control appeared to be a common element among those situations ranked as the most stressful, there was considerable diversify in the stressor rankings between the individual units. There were significant correlations between perceived life stress and the perceived severity of work stressors (r = 0.296, p < 0.005), as well as between actual (frequency) and perceived (intensity) stressful work events (r = 0.50, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides valuable insight into the actual and perceived stressful experiences of critical care nurses, thus contributing to the ongoing effort to reduce burnout in this population. The findings also establish a foundation for further nursing stress research in the context of the Adaptation Nursing Model.