Workplace stressors and coping strategies among the intensive care unit nurses at university teaching hospitals, Rwanda.

Abstract

Background: Nursing is widely known as stressful profession while the ICU is among the most stressing work setting (Callaghan et al., 2017 p. 1518-1527). When the ICU nurses fail to cope with workplace stress, the quality of nursing care is hindered, the uncontrolled stress can lead burnout syndrome, depression and other health events(Burgess et al. 2010 p. 31-52) Main purpose:To assess the workplace stressors and coping strategies among ICU nurses at University Teaching Hospitals, Rwanda. Specific objectives: To determine the level of workplace stress, identify the workplace stressors and coping strategies among the ICU nurses at University Teaching Hospitals, Rwanda. Methodology:Thecross-sectional descriptive design was used; the study sample size was 92 nurses working in ICU at University Teaching Hospitals, while the census sampling method was applied to get the sample. The simplified and adapted ENSS and Brief COPE Inventory were used as the data collection tools; SPSS 22 was used for data analysis. Results: About the levels of workplace stress among the ICU nurses, this study found that, 26.1% participants exhibit the high level, while 54.3% and 19.6% have moderate and low level of workplace stress respectively. The workplace stressors as reported by the participants, werethe nursing care for agitated, violent, abusive/ aggressive patients/families, patient‘s death and care for dying patient, heavy workload and work under pressure, and decision making in absence of physician. The coping strategies werethe comfort from religious activities, emotional support from colleagues and self-distraction by watching movies/ TV/ music and sport activities. The increased education level was found to be associated with the improved coping. Conclusions: Twenty six percent of ICU nurses reportedhigh level stress, while 54.3% exhibited the moderate level of workplace stress. The ICU stressors were caring for agitated patients, death and heavy workload while the religion, hobby activities and support from friends were reported as coping strategies.