A Study On The Role And Role Stress Of Nurses In Prison Hospitals From The Sight Of Role Theory

Objective: To describe the current situation of role self-cognition and role stress among nurses in prison hospitals and to explore the influencing factors of role stress among nurses in prison hospitals.Methods: In this study,both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to solve the problems above.In the cross-sectional survey,433 nurses were investigated with a self-designed general information questionnaire and the Chinese version of the Peterson Role Stressor Questionnaire.In the qualitative part,descriptive qualitative research was used.Totally 21 prison nurses or nursing managers who have filled out the questionnaires were purposefully selected as the semi-structure interviewees to explore the role cognition,role stress experience and influencing factors of nurses’ role stress.The relevant information was analyzed and arranged into different codes,and the main subjects influencing prison nurses’ role stress were classified.Results:1.Among the prison nurses,the average self-cognition score of "nurse" was higher than the "police officer"（5.22±2.15 vs 4.73±2.90）.In the cognition of nurse roles,the score of "care-giver" was the highest（7.12±2.51）and the score of "researcher" was the lowest（3.03±3.09）;In the cognition of prison police roles,the score of "penalty executor" was the highest（4.89±3.19）,and the score of "prison manager" was the lowest（4.46± 3.35）.2.Nurses in prison hospitals were under upper-middle level of role stress（38.54±7.13）.The level of role overload was the highest（3.50±0.83）,the influencing factors included gender（β=-0.053）,professional title（β=0.045）,social hospital work experience（β=0.043）,conflict between nurses and criminals（β=0.045）,self-injury and self-disability of criminals（β=0.033）,self-cognition of collaborator（β=-0.007）and educator（β=-0.01）.Role conflict ranked the second（3.24±0.94）,the influencing factors included nurses’ education（β=2.205）,work post（β=1.379）,conflicts between colleagues（β=0.586）,conflicts between nurses and offenders（β=0.961）,self-cognition of managers（β=-0.173）.The level of role ambiguity was lowest（2.26±0.51）,the influencing factors included work position（β =-1.053）,employment form（β=0.842）,conflict between nurses and offenders（β=0.475）,assistance of special post offenders（β=0.507）,and self-cognition of partner（β=-0.179）and prison manager（β=-0.184）.3.Four themes of factors influencing the role stress of nurses in prison hospitals were extracted from the semi-structured interview data:social factors（multiple supervision and management）,organizational factors（serious political attributes,closed working environment,etc.）,interpersonal factors（differentiated role expectations,unclear role content,etc.）and personal factors（insufficient role conversion ability,etc.）.Among them,there are 8 organizational factors,accounting for the highest proportion of all influencing factors.Conclusion: Although performing two work roles,prison nurses have a good recognition of their nursing role.It reflects good connotations of professional care in prison hospital;prison hospital nurses have a clear perception of their work role while feel heavy workload and pressure of role conflict,suggesting that research and scientific management should be emphasized.