Social support among nurses working in psychiatric and hospice ward

Background. Stress overload connected with job in nursing consist mostly of human related factors. Objectives. The present paper tries to describe the social support received by nurses employed in hospital wards, where they are exposed to high physical and psychic stress. Material and methods. The research group consist of 60 nurses employed in a hospice and a psychiatric ward. The tool applied in the research were: social factors survey, Social Support Scale and Need For Social Approval Questionnaire. Results. The results show that support was received mainly from family and friends. In the psychiatric ward the support was received from subordinates. The study period appears was significant for hospice nurses while evaluating the support received from coworkers. The younger psychiatric nurses were, the more significant the support received from supervisors, coworkers and acquaintances was. In the nurse group from the psychiatric ward the greater the need for social approval was, the greater significance of the support given by supervisors has. Consequently, it might be presumed that in the respect of the evaluation the results of the research were influenced by the need of social approval. Conclusions. Social support was differentiated in research groups according to the age and educational level in nurses, but they share "family" and "acquaintances" as a main supportive group.