Perceived stress and coping strategies among ICU nurses in government tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: No study has examined the stress level and coping strategies among critical care nurses in Saudi Arabia. OBJECTIVES: Examine perceived stress and coping behaviors among nurses in intensive care units in Saudi Arabia, and the influence of cop.ing mechanisms on stress. DESIGN: Descriptive cross-sectional. SETTING: Two tertiary training hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Nurses from cardiac, surgery and pediatric intensive care units responded to an online survey. Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10) and the Brief COPE Inventory were used as primary research tools. Multivariate methods were used to analyze the data. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Stress levels, coping strategies, and associated factors. SAMPLE SIZE: 154 nurses. RESULTS: The majority of the respondents reported a moderate level of stress in the past month (87.0%). Mean (SD) scores for nurses working in the cardiac ICU indicated significantly higher levels of stress compared to surgical ICU (18.18 3.88 vs 6.17 3.21, P=.025). Belief in religion was the most common coping behavior while the use of substances was the lowest (mean scores SD 6.70 1.72 vs 2.22 0.81). In the multivariate analysis, behavioral disengagement (P=.016) and self-blame (P less than .001) intensified the PSS-10 score, whereas acceptance (P=.048) reduced the PSS-10 score. CONCLUSION: The additional knowledge that behavioral disengagement and blaming aggravate stress can serve as the basis in formulating work-related stress reduction strategies among nurses caring for critical patients. LIMITATIONS: The use of self-reports, convenience sampling, and selected demographic factors may have limited the scope and generalizability of the findings and induced social desirability bias. CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.