With the objective of finding new knowledge that will contribute to reducing occupational stress in female ward nurses, an anonymous, self-administered mail-in questionnaire was conducted on ward nurses to analyze the relationship between occupational stress and “perception of the organization” (response rate, 29.9%; valid response rate, 71.9%; respondents analyzed, 215 nurses).

The analysis revealed that (1) all respondents analyzed could be classified into four groups based on differences in their “perception of the organization”; (2) between these four groups, significant differences (p ＜ 0.05) existed in the mean scores for each of the subscales of job stressors, stress reactions, and modifying factors of the brief job stress questionnaire; and (3) multiple regression analysis showed different regression equations (R²＞ 0.3) representing the relationship between subscales in each group. The same job stressors resulted in different mental and physical stress reactions based on differences in workers' “perception of the organization,” which depended on the combination of whether the workers perceived their own organization to implement reasonable organizational management, and whether the workers perceived their organization to enforce traditions, customs, and policies. These results demonstrated that understanding workers' “perception of the organization” is useful in reducing occupational stress.

The purpose of this research is to obtain an empirical insight on the relationship between occupational stress and occupational identity among those who change jobs. We sent an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire to 1,034 nursing faculty members who had been nurses. Its response rate was 41.3%, among them 89.7% were valid. We then analyzed the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire and a Scale to Measure Professional Identity in the Nursing Profession among 312 full-time nursing faculty members with nonmanagerial position. The respondents' occupational identity consisted of two axes: degree of “satisfaction with nursing faculty members” and “affirmation of oneself as a nurse or a nursing faculty member. The examination of the association between four quadrants classified from them and occupational stress revealed that the stress control was more related to “satisfaction with oneself as a nursing faculty member” than “whether you are more positive about oneself as a nurse or as a nursing faculty member.” This research shows that it is useful to take the degree of satisfaction for the present self into consideration for the control of occupational stress among nursing faculty members.

This study aimed to clarify the factors related to the physical activity of hemodialysis patients, with a focus on mental health. We measured the physical activity, Kidney Disease Quality of Life (KDQOL) score, and psychological distress in 11 outpatients on hemodialysis. Clinical data were obtained from medical records. Physical activity was determined by measuring the number of daily steps and time spent in activity corresponding to ≥3 METs on non-dialysis days using a pedometer with an accelerometer. The physical activity of hemodialysis patients showed a significant positive correlation only with “burden by kidney disease” of the disease-specific QOL scale and the “overall health feeling” and “vitality” of the comprehensive QOL scale. On comparing patients with high and low physical activity, the above three QOL scale scores were significantly better in the high physical activity group than in the low physical activity group. Furthermore, patients who denied psychological burden by kidney disease had significantly greater number of steps and longer activity time compared with patients who did not deny the same; in addition, the activity time of the former group of patients in winter was higher than that in spring and autumn. These results suggest that the physical activity of hemodialysis patients is particularly related to the psychological burden by kidney disease.