Job strain among nurses in a government hospital / Siti Khuzaimah Ahmad Sharoni … [et al.]

Nurses are exposed to negative impact of job strain, which may lead to burnout and other health problems. The impact of job strain may influence their productivity and quality of service. Objectives: to determine the level of job strain among nurses and to examine the relationship between job strain with socio-demographic characteristics. Methods: This was a crosssectional study involved 100 nurses in Hospital Setiu, Terengganu. The study was conducted from April to May 2012. Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 items (DASS-21) was used as the main instrument in this study. Descriptive analysis, Kruskal-Wallis and Mann Whitney-U test were used to analyze the data. Results: Most of nurses had moderately low level of job strain (mean = 27.01, SD = 6.14). Significant differences of score median were found between job strain with years of service (χ 2= 8.418, p = 0.015) and monthly family income (χ 2 = 10.841, p = 0.004). Conclusion: Nurses with longer years of service and had higher monthly income were usually psychologically competent and able to control their emotional status. Newly graduated nurses should be emphasized to manage their emotional status effectively.