2009 Volume 13 Issue 1 Pages 51-59
The aims of this study are to discover effective ways for nurse administrators to cope with work stressors during periods of change, and to clarify the connection between means of coping with stress and success at work.
The survey mailed anonymous, self-administered questionnaires targeting 295 nurse administrators(nursing directors, head nurses, and nursing officials) working in general hospitals of 200 beds or more in the Kyushu administrative district. Responses were received from 270 people (a response rate of 91.5%), providing a target for analysis of 238 people (a valid response rate of 88.1%) The subjects included a summary and the attributes of the target's facility, stress coping methods, and success at work. The study compared stress coping methods and success at work by job classification, confirming connections between the two, and then implemented one-way analysis of variance. Results are as follows.
1. "Human relationships" and "the heavy burden of work" came top of the list of nurse administrators' work stressors. Classified by job type, the most common responses were "increased duties in anticipating organizational change" from nursing directors, and "human relationships" from head nurses and nursing officials.
2. Problem-focused forms of coping featured significantly higher among nursing directors than among nursing officials, and emotion-focused forms featured significantly higher among head nurses than among nursing directors.
3. The group that was successful at work was significantly more likely to take direct action and information seeking approaches to problem-focused forms of coping.
The above suggests that coping with stressors during periods of change, and taking direct action and information seeking approaches to problem-focused forms of coping strengthen an individual's ability to cope. It also suggests that building support systems enables success at work.
