Nurse’s Experience of Using Digital Support to Manage Work Related Stress at Pravara Rural Hospital: A Phenomenology Study

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020 has estimated the nursing shortage in India.1 The objective of the study was to assess the nurse’sperceptions towards digital support to manage work related stress. A qualitative descriptive is undertaken as a pilot project to explore nurses experience of using digital support to manage work related stress at Dr Vitthalrao Vikhe Patil, Pravara Rural Hospital, Loni (Bk), large tertiary care facility in Western India. It is part of a larger project “Nurses life world”, a research cooperation with Lund University, Dalarna University and Skovde University Sweden. Methods: Thirty nurses were selected via purposive sampling. ATLAS. it7 software tool for organization and analysis of qualitative data was used to analyze the verbatim transcript. Data was collected through open-ended interview guide questions and face-to-face individual interviews. Ethical considerations were applied to all stages of the study. The collected data was analyzed according to the content analysis method suggested by Graneheim and Lundman. Results: The study resulted in six themes, six main categories and thirty five sub-categories. The themes includes:positive experience to digital support, implication features of digital stress apps, emerging innovative technology opportunities, difficulties and challenges of digit apps, future perspectives and seeking facilitators. Conclusion: The present study shows the digital support is useful for the nurses to cope with work related stress. The study provides insight to develop appropriate stress management digital apps for nurses in the working environment to cope with occupational stress.