Sources of satisfaction and stress in nursing home caregivers: preliminary results

A study of nursing staff on two units of a long-term nursing facility examined their reasons for enjoying and disliking their jobs, and daily reports of positive and negative events experienced along with their rating of the emotional intensity of those events. Each of the 30 members of the nursing staff responded to a brief demographic questionnaire. The nursing staff expressed strong positive attitudes towards their jobs. They described a wide range of concerns, both positive and negative, relating to institutional, unit management, and direct patient care issues. The mean intensities associated with positive and negative events at each of the areas of concern were above 7.5 on a 10-point scale (10 = highest intensity), with the exception of the intensity of negative events at the patient level (mean = 6.2). The intensity for positive events at the patient level was among the highest (mean = 9.2). The difference between the two means at the patient level suggests that nursing staff have adjusted to their work by focusing on positive patient events and by tempering their reaction to negative patient events.