Stress coping strategies of nurses working in the psychiatry clinic

Objectives: To compare the stress coping strategies of nurses working in the psychiatry clinic according to the nurses working in clinics for chronic diseases such as oncology and hemodialysis.

Methods: Thirty-four nurses working in the psychiatry clinic (study group) and 39 nurses (control group) working in the clinics of chronic diseases (oncology and hemodialysis) were included into the study. Sociodemographic data form, “The Ways of Coping Questionnaire” (WCQ), Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D) and Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A) were performed to both groups. “The Ways of Coping Questionnaire” has five subgroups as follows: seeking social support, helpless approach, optimistic approach, self-confident approach and subservient approach. Items of 8, 10, 14, 16, 20, 23, 26 are in the self-confident approach, items of 2, 4, 6, 12, 18 are in the optimistic approach, items of 3, 7, 11, 19, 22, 25, 27, 28 are in the helpless approach, items of 5, 13, 15, 17, 21, 24 are in the subservient approach, items of 1, 9, 29, 30 are in the seeking social support.

Results: Mean age was 41.76±7.40 in the study group and 32.18±9.44 in the control group. Although HAM-D Scale scores were under 7 in both groups, HAM-A Scale score was 9.18±9.16 in the study group and 8.49±7.84 in the control group. But the difference between the HAM-A scores in both groups was not statistically significant (p<0.05). The difference between the two groups in terms of total scores of WCQ (in the study group 42.97±11.44; in the control group 42.82±7.20) and scores of seeking social support (in the study group 7.35±2.24; in the control group 7.05±2.03), helpless approach (in the study group 8.26±3.50; in the control group 8.56±4.19) and optimistic approach (in the study group 8.50±3.81; in the control group 8.97±2.56) subgroups were not statistically significant (p<0.05). While the score of selfconfident approach subgroup was higher in the control group (in the study group 12.82±4.90; in the control group 13.51±3.72), the score of subservient approach subgroup was higher in the study group (in the study group 6.00±2.73; in the control group 4.97±3.28), but the differences between the groups were not found statistically significant (p<0.05).

Conclusion: No significant difference was found between the nurses working in the psychiatry clinic and the nurses working in the clinics for chronic diseases in terms of stress coping strategies. However, it is remarkable that nurses working in psychiatry clinic use the selfconfident approach less and the subservient approach more.