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Stress in Nurses: Stress-Related Affect and Its Determinants Examined Over the Nursing Day

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Annals of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Background

Nurses are a stressed group and this may affect their health and work performance. The determinants of occupational stress in nurses and other occupational groups have almost invariably been examined in between subject studies.

Purpose

This study aimed to determine if the main determinants of occupation stress, i.e. demand, control, effort and reward, operate within nurses.

Methods

A real time study using personal digital-assistant-based ecological momentary assessment to measure affect and its hypothesised determinants every 90 min in 254 nurses over three nursing shifts. The measures were negative affect, positive affect, demand/effort, control and reward.

Results

While the effects varied in magnitude between people, in general increased negative affect was predicted by high demand/effort, low control and low reward. Control and reward moderated the effects of demand/effort. High positive affect was predicted by high demand/effort, control and reward.

Conclusions

The same factors are associated with variations in stress-related affect within nurses as between.

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Conflict of Interests Statement

The authors have no conflicts of interests to disclose.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3FX, UK

    Derek W. Johnston Ph.D

  2. School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Dundee, 11 Airlie Place, Dundee, DD1 4HJ, UK

    Martyn C. Jones Ph.D

  3. Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK

    Kathryn Charles Ph.D, Sharon K. McCann Ph.D & Lorna McKee Ph.D

Authors
  1. Derek W. Johnston Ph.D
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  2. Martyn C. Jones Ph.D
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  3. Kathryn Charles Ph.D
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  4. Sharon K. McCann Ph.D
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  5. Lorna McKee Ph.D
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Derek W. Johnston Ph.D.

Additional information

This article presents independent research commissioned by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO) Programme. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. The NIHR SDO Programme is funded by the Department of Health. This research was supported by SDO grant SDO/92/05, lead investigator L. McKee. The late Jon Rasbash provided us with very important advice on the conduct and reporting of the analyses in this paper and was as always a source of help and encouragement. We thank Marie Johnston for her helpful comments on drafts of this paper. Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Professor Derek Johnston, School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen, Kings College, Aberdeen, AB24 3FX, Scotland.

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Johnston, D.W., Jones, M.C., Charles, K. et al. Stress in Nurses: Stress-Related Affect and Its Determinants Examined Over the Nursing Day. ann. behav. med. 45, 348–356 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-012-9458-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12160-012-9458-2

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