A Systematic Review of the Stress-Coping Scales Used in Korean Nursing

Abstract

This study aimed to compare the stress-coping measurement scales used in the nursing field in South Korea through a literature review based on the types of tools assessed, their characteristics, frequency of use, target stress, target population, and coping outcomes.The data base periodical information academic, Korea citation index, Korean studies information sharing service, Korean medical database, National discovery for science leaders, KoreaMed, National assemble library, and National library of Korea databases were searched for articles related to coping with stress and nursing published between 2009 and 2018 in South Korea. Of the total 1,666 articles searched, 59 articles that were aligned with the study purpose were finally selected after reviewing the original texts and excluding duplicates.The study identified six stress-coping scales used by Korean nurses, among which the ways of coping (WCQ) was the most frequently used. Most of the studies involved nursing students, followed by patients and health workers (nurses and caregivers). Regarding the types of stress, the WCQ was used the most by studies on work-related and daily living stress, followed by those focusing on health-related stress and clinical practice stress. Secondary analysis of WCQ usage showed that 48.5% of the studies interpreted the scale results for individual coping methods, and the remaining 45.5% interpreted the results based on the overall score.Researchers need to appropriately use and interpret the results of scales that have been translated into Korean and validated for each situation and participant.