PROJECT SYNOPSIS

PROJECT TITILE: A STUDY TO ASSESS AND ANALYSE JOB RELATED STRESS

AMONG STAFF NURSES
INTRODUCTION:
IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
20TH century has been regarded as the period of incredible change in human history.
Philosophers and scientists have been various names to this period. Peter Drucker has called it The Age
of Discontinuity, John Galbraith has called it The Age of Future Shock and Hari Albrecht called it
The Age of Anxiety.
Stress has become the 21 century buzz word, from the high pervading corporate echelons to
the bassinets of teaching infants nurseries we find this world liberally used. Stress is part of modern life.
Various events in life cause stress, starting with the birth of a child and enduring with the death of a dear
one.
Urbanization, industrialization and the increase scale of operations in society are some of the
reasons for rising stress. It is an inevitable consequence of socio-economic complexity and to some
extent, its stimulant as well. People experience stress as they can no longer have complete control over
what happen in their lives. The telephone goes out of order, power is shut down, water supply is
disrupted, children perform poorly at school etc, we feel frustrated and then stressed.
The word stress is derived from a Latin word stringere, meaning to draw tight. From the
view point of physical sciences, the phenomena of stress are evident in all materials when they are
subjected to force, pressure, strain or strong-front. Every material steel, rock or wood has its own limit
up to which it can withstand stress without being damaged. Similarly human beings can tolerate certain
level of stress. Stress is highly individualistic in nature. Some people have high levels of stress tolerance
for stress and thrive very well in the face of several stressors in the environment. In fact, some individuals
will not perform well unless they experience a level of stress which activates and energizes then to put
forth their best results.
For every individual there is an optimum level of stress under which he or she will perform to
full capacity. If the stress experience is below the optimum level, then the individual gets bored, the
motivational level of work reaches a low point and it results to careless mistakes, forgetting to do things
and thinking of things other than work during work hours and also leads to absenteeism which may
ultimately lead to turnover. If on the other hand, stress experience is above the optimum level, it leads to
too many conflicts with the supervisor or leads to increase of errors, bad decisions and the individual may
experience insomnia, stomach problems, and psychosomatic illness.
The present world is fast changing and there are lots of pressures and demands at work. These
pressures at work lead to physical disorders. Stress refers to individuals reaction to a disturbing factor in
the environment. It is an adaptive response to certain external factor or situation or what can be called
environmental stimuli as reflected in an opportunity, constraint, or demand the outcome of which is

uncertain but important. In short stress is a response to an external factor that results in physical,
emotional, behavioral deviations in a person.
Stress is an all pervading modern phenomenon that takes a heavy toll of human life.
Different situations and circumstances in our personal life and in our job produce stress. Those can be
divided into factors related to the organization and factors related to the person which include his
experience and personality traits. Job related factors are work overload, time pressures, poor quality of
supervision, insecure political climate, role conflict and ambiguity, difference between company values
and employee values. Person related factors are death of spouse, or of a close friend, family problems,
change to a different line of work, prolonged illness in the family, change in social activities, eating
habits, etc.,
Personality traits are Type A personality. They are impatient, ambitious, competitive,
aggressive, and hardworking. They set high goals and demands of themselves and others. And they are
particularly prone to stress inducing anticipatory emotions such as anxiety.

DEFINITION OF STRESS
According to Richard S Lazarus, stress is a feeling experienced when a person thinks
that. the demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to
mobilize
NEED OF THE STUDY
Stress and burnout are concepts that have sustained the interest of nurses and researchers
for several decades. These concepts are highly relevant to the workforce in general and nursing
in particular. Many studies of stress in nurse in developed countries have shown chronic stress as
a major contributor to suicide or suicidal thoughts, smoking, excessive coffee consumption, and
alcohol intake.
A moderate level of stress or Easters is an important motivating factor and
is considered normal and necessary. If stress is intense, continuous, and repeated, it becomes a
negative phenomenon or Distress which can lead to physical illness and psychological disorders.
Nurses are the backbone of any healthcare unit. The pressures of overtime and long working
hours create a work personal life imbalance, which begins to affect the health of the employees.
Lack of professional respect and recognition by authorities and doctors is the
major cause of stress among nurses in India. Poor relationship with physicians was related to
stress, which is seen as the most important reason for nurses leaving hospitals. Lack of
autonomy, poor participation in patient care due to lack of sufficient knowledge and
empowerment deprives them from job satisfaction. Nurses in India are mainly from the lower
economic strata and have low educational qualifications. Their main motivators are salary and
benefits to support their home and maintain a decent standard of living. Shortage of staff makes

them easily succumb to increasing their pay package by doing excessive hours of overtime at the
expense of their health. They have limited access to claims and compensation for occupational
hazards.
Changes in health care systems, including the international shortage of
nursing staff, have implications on role stress felt by nurses, especially by nursing managers. In a
review of 68 articles on nurses' role stress, the most frequently identified stressors were
workload, role conflict, ambiguity, and lack of support (Chang, Hancock, Johnson, Daly, &
Jackson, 2005). Stress leads to job dissatisfaction, burnout, and absenteeism; also, negatively
impacts patients (Aiken et al., 2001; Lee & Henderson, 1996).
Vicarious trauma and burnout are serious manifestations of workplace
stress. Both can have substantial consequences for health care professionals, health services, and
consumers. A study examining the prevalence, distribution, correlates, and predictors of
vicarious trauma and burnout among Registered Psychiatric Nurses (RPNs). A survey was
distributed to all practicing RPNs in Manitoba, Canada (N = 1,015). The survey contained the
Maslach Burnout Inventory, the Traumatic Stress Institute Belief Scale The RPNs were found to
be experiencing high levels of emotional. Stress experienced by RPNs, as well as strengths on
which to build, clearly are evident in the study results. Strategies for reduction in workplace
stress may benefit psychiatric nurses, clients, and health services.
Nurses are responsible for creating the environment in which nursing is
practiced and patient care is given, it is important to explore interventions that will reduce the
stress and burnout experienced by nurses. By reducing the stressful nature of the nurses work,
nurse could be more satisfied in their positions. This role satisfaction, in turn, could lead to
improve the work environment for staff nurses.
From the reviews and investigators experience investigator felt the need to
assess and compare the level of stress among nurses working in multi specialty hospitals for
establishing the existence and extent of work stress in nurses in a hospital setting, identifying the
major sources of stress, and finding the incidence of illness related to stress and implement some
stress coping strategies in them in order to have a friendly working environment.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Depew CL, Gordon M, Yoder LH, Goodwin CW [1999] conducted a study
to determine whether the personality trait of hardiness is a predictor of burnout Forty-nine
registered nurses working in 7 special care units completed the Tedium Burnout Scale, the
Nursing Stress Scale, and the Hardiness Test. Results indicate that burnout, stress, and hardiness
had a significant relationship (P < .001). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that
hardiness alone accounted for 35% of burnout variance (P < .05) and that the addition of stress
had no effect. However, in this study, nurses from the Burn Intensive Care Unit had the highest

burnout and stress scores and the lowest hardiness scores of nurses from the 7 units. This study
confirms findings by a previous study that hardiness is a predictor of burnout but is not a buffer
in the stress-burnout relationship.
A study was conducted by Watson P, Feld A. in 2006 to Assess stress and
burnout among nurses in a multispecialty hospital. High stress and staff turnover in a
multispecialty paediatric area. Fifty-four percent (n = 14) of the paediatric nurses completed a
questionnaire booklet that included demographic data, the Burnout Inventory. Results indicated
levels of burnout and distress comparable with larger studies. Conflict with doctors was the
major source of stress, followed by workload, inadequate preparation in dealing with the
emotional needs of patients and their families and death and dying. Conflict with doctors has not
previously been identified as the major source of stress. However, workload and death and dying
are commonly identified as sources in the literature. Suggestions for further research and the low
response rate are discussed.
A study was conducted by Jaracz K, Grna K, Konieczna J. in 2005 to
evaluate professional burnout among multispeciality hospital nurses A study sample consisted
of 227 nurses from general medical, neurological and psychiatric hospital wards. A set of 3
questionnaires was used, including Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), Coping Inventory for
Stressful Situations (CISS) and Subjectively Perceived Stresss (SPS).Average and high level of
burnout in the emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (D) and personal accomplishment
(PA) was present at 71%, 39.8% and 77% of nurses respectively. A significantly higher level of
burnout was noted in the subgroup of general medical nurses. The level of stress influences the
professional burnout among nurses. There is a diversity in the level of burnout depending on the
specialization at work, which is not accompanied by a similar diversity in the subjectively
perceived stress.
A study was conducted by Adachi H, Inoue M, Inaba R, Iwata H. in
1999 to assess Mental health and stress coping among specialty hospital nurses. A selfadministrated questionnaire including questions on nursing work, the General Health
Questionnaire (GHQ) as well as the Stress and Stress Coping questionnaire (SSCQ) was used.
The subjects of this study were 225 female nurses. The results obtained were as follows, either of
the following determinants was related to negative mental health: experience of 1-2 years;
working in the operating room or in-patient department. 2) The subjects whose working
experience was < 5 years or > or = 10 years had higher scores in the SSCQ. These findings
suggest that because working conditions have a negative influence on mental health, educational
system for both inexperienced and experienced nurses is needed to develop an effective stresscoping style in medical institutions.

A study was conducted by Han K, Kim NS, Kim JH, Lee KM. in
2004 to identify the factors influencing Symptoms of Stress among hospital staff nurses. Data
was collected by questionnaires from 249 hospital staff nurses in three multi specialty Hospital.
The score of the symptoms of stress showed a significantly positive correlation with the score of
work stress (r=.22, p=.00). The most powerful predictor of symptoms of stress was social support
and the variance explained was 16%. A combination of social support, ways of coping, and work
stress account for 32% of the variance in symptoms of stress among hospital staff nurses. This
study suggests that social support, ways of coping, self efficacy, hardiness, and work stress are
significantly influencing factors on symptoms of stress among hospital staff nurses.
OBJECTIVES:
1. To access current level of stress among nurses.
2. Identify factors causing stress.
3. To recommend coping strategies to manage stress.
WORKING HYPOTHESIS:
SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

Day and day Services is providing various kind of services like Wealth
Management, Man Power services, Asset Management and also doing the back-end works for
the clients. Hence the employees will have to satisfy the clients expectation and they are
constantly under pressure in completing the work in the specified time. So this study will help to
find the stress among employees and its impact on their performance, so that they can rectify.
Stress management becoming accepted as a workplace phenomenon negatively affecting a
growing number of people across the world. As the economy becomes global and competition
increases in the battle for market share and survival, pressure on workers.
Stress management helps to protect both the individual as well as
organization from the effects of stress. Thus it finds the causes of stress and has various
techniques to reduce the stress level of the employees.
It is well known fact that healthy employee is a productive employee
RESERCH METHODOLOGY:
RESERCH DESIGN
SAMPLE DESIGN
DATA COLLECTION METHODS
DATA ANALYSIS TOOLS

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY: www.rguhs.ac.in SCRIBD.COM