Occupational Stress among Hospital Nurses: Comparison of Internal, Surgical, and Psychiatric Wards

Background Managing and coping with occupational stress as a recognized problem in the modern era, is vital and important. Nursing is by nature a stressful occupation. Continuous and long-term stress can result in physical, psychological, and behavioral problems in nurses. We aimed to assess occupational stress in nurses working in surgical, internal and psychiatric wards in teaching hospitals of Shiraz, southern Iran. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 180 nurses were selected among nurses working in surgical, internal and psychiatric wards of 4 teaching hospitals affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Data were collected using questionnaires containing Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and demographic information. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software. t test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used as appropriated. Results The results of the study indicated that nurses of surgical and internal wards showed significantly higher level of occupational stress in most scales of occupational stress, except relationship, compared with nurses working in psychiatric wards. There was no significant correlation among scales of occupational stress and age, marital status, work shifts and experience. However, we found a significant correlation with some scales of occupational stress and sex and education level. Conclusion The findings suggest that occupational stress varies within different wards in the hospitals. Occupational stress should be prevented and controlled early and nurses should be supported in this regard.