Predictors of nurses' stress working with older people admitted to acute care setting

Abstract

Aim: To identify the predictors of nurses' work stressors who care for older people (i.e., over age 65 years) in Jordan.

Background: Nurses sometimes experience stress which could occur as results of caring for older people, for example, with multiple physical and psychological needs. This stress could affect the job satisfaction and reduce the quality of care provided to older people. Thus, identifying sources of stress and predictors that cause stress for nurses is required to enhance quality of care for older people.

Design: A cross-sectional design.

Methods: Cluster random sampling was used to select study settings (i.e., 3 public hospitals, 3 private hospitals and 17 healthcare centres) in Amman, Jordan. A convenience sampling method was used to select 485 nurses. The Quality-Work-Competence questionnaire and Nurses' Working Life Questionnaire were used. Multiple linear regressions were used to identify predictors of job stress for nurses providing care for older people. The data were collected between June 2016 and January 2017.

Results: Job satisfaction, competence, development skills, gender, organisational climate and employee development, all have demonstrated significant correlations with stress. The regression analysis showed that the model significantly predicted a sizable portion of variance (R² = 0.27, p < 0.001) in the physical and psychological stress among nurses working in the older people care settings.

Conclusion: The nursing profession and the employing agencies should support nurses who care for older people in practice by conducting special training programmes to cope with stress. Interventional studies should be conducted to confirm the association between the nurses' work stress who care for older people and job satisfaction, competence, development skills, gender, organisational climate and employee development.

Implications for practice: It is recommended that rotating appropriate competent nurses who care for older people, in particular dementia patients who are usually very ill may have greater needs due to their cognitive status, through other wards would temporarily reduce the nurses' stress. The nursing profession and the employing agencies should support nurses who care for older people in practice by conducting special training programmes focusing on the teaching skills and knowledge of how to deal with stress.

Keywords: Jordan; care of the elderly; nurses; nursing satisfaction; staff development; work conditions; work stress.