Stress and Coping Strategies Among CCU and Non CCU Nurses in Selected Hospital, Kolkata

Background: Nurses are angels of health care delivery system in comfortable shoes. Caring of ill person is the essence of nursing. Nursing is a highly stressful profession. As, the increased demand and advance in the nursing career, stress among nurses has also escalated. Now a day stress among nurses is a big problem. Coping strategies are used by staff nurses to combat the stress. In line with, investigator intended to study the stress and coping strategies among staff nurses working in Critical Care Unit and Non Critical Care Unit in a selected hospital, Kolkata. Material and Methods: A descriptive comparative study was adopted to assess the stress and coping strategies among staff nurses working in Critical Care Unit and Non Critical Care Unit in IPGMER and SSKM Hospital, Kolkata.100 staff nurses were selected from IPGMER & SSKM Hospital by Non probability purposive sampling technique and data was collected by using three different tools, structured questionnaire for demographic profile, structured rating scale for job stress and structured rating scale for coping strategies. The descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data based on objectives of the study. Results: The results showed that the maximum 33 (66%) of staff nurses working in Critical Care Unit had moderate stress, followed by 15 (30%) had severe stress and majority 43 (86%) of staff nurses working in Non Critical Care Unit had moderate stress, followed by only 4 (8%) had severe stress and both majority Critical care and Non critical care nurses had career development related stress (77% CCU and 72% Non CCU) and both Critical care and Non critical care nurses used emotion focused coping strategies (78.5% CCU and 68% Non CCU). Conclusion: The study had important implication in various field of nursing education, administration and research which paves the way for further research. It was strongly recommended that a regular assessment of stress and stress reduction program can be arranged to reduce stress among nurses which helps to improve the quality of care of the patient.