Occupational stress in nursing professionals in a hospital in the interior of the south of Bahia-Brazil

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the occurrence of occupational stress in nursing staff professionals in a large hospital in the interior of southern Bahia, Brazil.Methods: Quantitative, descriptive-exploratory and cross-sectional study, in which 114 nursing professionals participated. For data collection, the Work Stress Scale was used, adapted from the version by Paschoal and Tamayo. Data were processed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences software version 25.0, where statistical normality tests were performed by Shapiro Wilk, Levene, t test, Chi-square and Fisher's Exact Test. For the correlation between the variables, Spearman's correlation coefficient was used, with a statistical significance of p<0.05. Results: Among the participants, 40.4% are with low stress, 57.9% with medium stress and 0.17% with high stress. There was no statistical significance relating the level of stress to sex, marital status or the existence of children. The variable that showed statistical significance was the one referring to the work shift (p=0.044) and age (p=0.025). Conclusion: Nursing needs to reflect on its professional practice and, together with management, encourage a more welcoming work environment, promote psychosocial support, physical and mental.