The Correlation Between The Job Stress And Quality Of Life Of Nurses In Changsha

Objective: To investigate the situation of the job stress and quality of life of nurses in Changsha, to analyze the influent factors of the job stress and quality of life , to explore the relationship between them and to provide theoretical evidence for nursing managers to take effective measures to alleviate the job stress of nurses so as to improve their quality of lives.Methods: Hospital nurses were investigated using stratified randomized sampling method. As for community nurses, cluster randomized sampling method was used. 100 nurses from 3 hospitals of different levels ranged from grade 1 to grade 3 per district were selected from 5 districts of Changsha according to the geographic distribution. The number of sample was determined according to the ratio of the total number of nurses of different levels of hospitals. The total number of nurses in grade 3, 2,1 is 3902,2420,768 respectively ,and that is 5: 3: 1. Lastly, 56 nurses of grade 3, 33 nurses of grade 2 and 11 nurses of grade 1 in each district were selected respectively. The community health agencies were also selected according to the geographic distribution, and 2 agencies were selected randomly from each district. Totally 15 hospitals and 10 community health agencies were selected. Inclusion criteria: more than One-year working experience, who has gotten the license of nursing. the questionnaire included two scale :nurses' pressure source scale which adapted by Li Xiaomei and the brief edition of WHO quality of life scale(WHOQOL-BREF).Original data were analyzed with SPSS 11.5 statistical package, statistical methods included analysis of descriptive statistics, independent sample t test, ANOVA and pearson correlation analysis.Results:1 .There were 600 nurses participated in the study. A total of 600 questionnaires were sent out, and 687 valid ones were retrieved with the efficient response rate of 97.83%.2.The total mean score of job stress was 11.51±1.99 (5.83-19.80) .Among the 5 subscales of the nurse's job stress scale, the highest score was nursing profession and the main aspects of the work ,the lowest score was management and social relationship. The survey shows that the mainest source of job stress is "too low wages and benefits", followed by the "low social status", "non-nursing work too much" and so on. There were significant differences between different ages, education levels, marriage status, titles, working duration, social relationship, levels of hospitals, frequency of night duties, sleep and health status. There were also significant differences between hospitals and the community agencies (p<0.05 or p<0.01) . No significant differences were found between different monthly income and the times of changing work positions(p>0.05).3.The total mean score of quality of life was 273.31±43.52 (103.87-415.33) . Among the various dimensions of quality of life scale, the highest score was social sphere, and the lowest score was the field of environment. There were significant differences between different education levels, frequency of night duties, sleep and health status and monthly income groups. There were also significant differences between hospitals and the community agencies (p<0.05 or p<0.01) . No significant differences were found between different ages, marriage status, titles, working duration, social relationship, and the times of changing work positions(p>0.05).4. There were negative correlation between the dimensions of job stress and quality of life.Conclusion:1. The total job stress of nurses in Changsha is moderate. The major source of pressure is from the nursing profession and the main aspects of the work; "low wages and benefits", "low social status" and "non-nursing work too much" is the top three sources of stress. Job stress of community nurses was significantly lower than the hospital nurses.2. The total score of nurses' life quality in Changsha was 273.31±43.52 (103.87—415.33) . The factors influencing quality of life included education level, hospital attributes (hospital or community), the frequency of night duties, sleep and health status, monthly income and so on. Quality of life of community nurses was significantly higher than nurses in hospitals.3. There were negative correlation between the dimensions of job stress and quality of life. The greater the job stress, the lower the quality of their lives.