No study has examined the stress level and coping strategies among critical care nurses in Saudi Arabia.
Examine perceived stress and coping behaviors among nurses in intensive care units in Saudi Arabia, and the influence of coping mechanisms on stress.
Nurses from cardiac, surgery and pediatric intensive care units responded to an online survey. Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10) and the Brief COPE Inventory were used as primary research tools. Multivariate methods were used to analyze the data.
The majority of the respondents reported a moderate level of stress in the past month (87.0%). Mean (SD) scores for nurses working in the cardiac ICU indicated significantly higher levels of stress compared to surgical ICU (18.18 [3.88] vs 6.17 [3.21], P=.025). Belief in religion was the most common coping behavior while the use of substances was the lowest (mean scores [SD] 6.70 [ 1.72] vs 2.22 [0.81]). In the multivariate analysis, behavioral disengagement ( P=.016) and self-blame ( P<.001) intensified the PSS-10 score, whereas acceptance ( P=.048) reduced the PSS-10 score.