When and how do hospital nurses cope with daily stressors? A multilevel study

Abstract

Background During their workday, nurses face a variety of stressors that are dealt with using different coping strategies. One criticism of the contextual models of work stress is that they fail to focus on individual responses like coping with stress. Neverthless, little is know about the momentary determinants of coping in nurses. Objectives To identify the momentary predictors of problem-focused approaching coping and emotion-focused approaching coping, as well as those for seeking social support and refusal coping strategies, during the working day in nurses. Design This study uses descriptive, correlational, two-level design with repeated measures. Settings Wards of two University hospitals. Participants A random cohort of 113 nurses was studied. Methods An ecological momentary assessment was made of demand, control, effort, reward, nursing task, coping, mood and fatigue, and of coping style by questionnaire. Multilevel two-level statistical analyses were performed in order to identify both within person and between person relationships. Results Different momentary types of coping were associated with different tasks. The problem-focused coping could be explained by the direct care and medication tasks, demand, planning coping style, mood, and negatively by acceptation coping style. Emotion-focused coping could be explained by documentation and medication tasks (negatively), mood, demand, distraction, and disengagement coping styles. Seeking social support coping could be explained by the task of communication, mood, fatigue (negatively), and seeking emotional support as a coping style. Refusal coping could be explained by mood, and the coping style of focusing and venting emotions. Refusal coping is not specific to any task. Conclusions The choice of the coping strategy depends on the task, of their appraisal and on the different styles of coping.