Technostress among nursing staff in the intensive care units in three hospitals in the southern area of Madrid.

Introduction: Intensive Care Units expose nursing staff to psychosocial risks derived from the intensive use of Information and Communication Technologies. Talking about this topic, technostress has been identified as an emerging issue. Objective: To assess the level of technostress experienced by nursing staff in the Intensive Care Units of three hospitals in the southern region of the Community of Madrid. Methodology: A multicentre, observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study was conducted. The RED-Technostress questionnaire was used to measure anxiety, fatigue, scepticism, inefficacy, and addiction related to the use of Information and Communication Technologies. Results: A total of 20,47% of the surveyed staff exhibited technostress, while 37,79% showed signs of techno-addiction. Differences were observed in the affective dimension based on gender, whereas age influenced both technostress and techno-addiction. Factors such as work experience, shift schedule, contract type, and working hours showed no significant association with technostress. Although prior training did not significantly impact overall technostress levels, it was associated with a reduction in fatigue. Discussion: The study highlights the risk of developing technostress in Intensive Care Units. However, comparisons with other studies are limited due to variations in assessment scales and differences in study populations. Conclusions: The homogeneity of technostress levels across hospitals suggests that it is a common challenge within the healthcare sector, regardless of the specific characteristics of each institution.