Stress in nurses’ caring for stroke patients and families: a mixed-method study

Background: Within nursing, caring for stroke patients and helping them with the recovery of their abilities can be strenuous; even more so when considering the nurse’s scope of practice includes the patient and predicts a supportive role to the caregivers. This type of rehabilitative nursing care can be demanding, and nurses may experience increased levels of stress. Despite the extensive literature about the nursing workload and its connection to occupational stress, very little research has been conducted particularly about stress levels experienced by nurses working with stroke patients, who may experience particularly high stress. The rationale for this research emerged from the scarcity of studies worldwide and especially in Irish stroke units. Methods: Nurses from stroke and medical wards (n=100) were distributed the Perceived Stress Scale and requested to complete it from the perspective of their workplace. A convenience sample of these nurses were interviewed about their experience of stress. Results: Of 48 survey respondents, 68% reported ‘moderate’ levels of stress, with higher mean levels in nurses working in medical wards (M=20.10, SD=5.42) than nurses in stroke units (M=16.17, SD=4.41; t(46)=2.757, p<0.01). In interviews with nurses on stroke units (n=11), sources of stress included work performance anxiety (e.g. fear of errors), workload burden/conflicting demands, and family/physician interactions. Coping mechanisms included brief “time outs”, direct problem-solving, and peer support.  Conclusions: The participants’ experiences of stress may help other nurses working with stroke patients to cope better with work-related stress, and provide guidance to managers in improving the organization of stroke networks.