The study of Job Stress and Tension Management among Oncology Nurses of Ahvaz Hospitals in 2015

Nursing care for cancer patients is stressful for nurses and to maintain the quality of care they should be able to manage these tensions. Therefore, the aim of current study was to determine the level of job stress and tension management among oncology nurses of hospitals in the city of Ahvaz in 2015. Our descriptive survey was conducted on 93 oncology nurses at the hospitals of Ahvaz (Imam Khomeini, Oil Company, Arya, Golestan, and Shafa). Census method was used for sampling and required data collected by research-designed questionnaire. Validity of the questionnaire was determined by formal content validity and its reliability was obtained through internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha. Cronbach's alpha for t job stress scale questionnaire and tension-relieve management were 0.966 and 0.958, respectively. The study showed that most of the subjects, female, married, bachelor, contract employment, working in public hospitals, aged less than 30 years, working for 1-5 years (as a nurse) and 1-5 years of experience as oncology nurses haven't take effective courses on stress management. In terms of job tension associated with patient, his family, colleagues and physicians all nurses experienced average levels of stress. Job stress level of 3.61 percent of the participants was about average. Tension relive rate of all nurses in the areas of distraction, self-regulation, social support at workplace and a positive attitude towards the profession was moderate. The level of tension relieve management was moderate among 58.1 percent of the subjects. The results of variance analysis with repeated measurements showed that there is a significant difference in the average of four types of job stress (p<0.05) and 4 areas of tension relieve management (p<0.001). According to the level of nurses' occupational stress, the stress level can be minimized through being aware of the needs of nurses and providing practical and fundamental approaches for management of the hospital. Since among the four types of job stress, the colleague-related stress was the highest, to enhance the nurses' health and improve relations between the colleagues, health officials and managers should plan so that by offering effective solutions in this area, the possible adverse consequences of job tension among the treatment team to be prevented. In addition, according to this research levels of tension relieve management were at average which can be maximized by holding teaching sessions with experienced psychologists to educate skills of coping stress among nurses. Since managing tension relieve in the area of positive attitude towards the profession achieved the highest mean, therefore, by teaching stress management skills particularly using a positive attitude towards the role of work, it seems that enhancement of spirituality and existence of psychological support systems for reducing stress levels of the nurses is necessary.