Psychosocial and other nonbiological therapies and interventions The relationship between the levels of anxiety and coping attitudes of nurses working at a training hospital

Objective: “Coping” is defined as resistance against stress full events or situations and all cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses of the individual in order to withstand these conditions. Previous studies have shown that nursing is a demanding profession, and stress due to workplace is common among nurses. In this study, we aimed to assess coping attitudes of nurses working in a university hospital according to their anxiety levels and to reveal the relationship between them.

Method: Eighty nurses working in various clinics of Gulhane Military Faculty of Medicine and Training Hospital, who has no psychiatric complaints were enrolled. In this questionnaire study, as the first step, the sociodemographic data collection form and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were applied to participants, then the study group was divided into two sub-groups according to their anxiety scores. Both groups were compared in terms of Coping Attitudes Scale (COPE) scores.

Results: It was found that nurses with higher levels of anxiety used denial and focusing on the problem and revealing the feelings as dysfunctional methods more often and they used active coping as problem-focused coping methods lesser.

Conclusion: The findings of the study shows that nurses with higher levels of anxiety use active coping as problem-focused coping methods less than those with normal levels of anxiety and they use denial and focus on and venting of emotions as dysfunctional methods more often. Our study shows that dysfunctional coping attitudes can be associated with anxiety symptoms.