Critical Evaluation: Factors Causing Work Stress in Psychiatric Nurses

This report provides a critical evaluation of the factors causing work stress levels in psychiatric nurses in Australia. It begins by outlining the background and introduction to psychiatric nursing as a stressful occupation, identifying stressors such as poor working relationships, burnout, demanding patient interactions, understaffing, and low job satisfaction. The study aims to determine the causes of stress among psychiatric nurses with over two years of experience, compare stress levels between mental health and general nurses, and critically evaluate the factors contributing to stress. The scope of the research uses the PICO tool to address clinical scenarios and suggests interventions like rotational working, compensation, limited working hours, and stress management programs. The literature review defines job stress and highlights conflicts with co-workers, lack of support, and low self-esteem as potential causes. The research employs a qualitative method, reviewing relevant literature from databases like CINAHL, ProQuest, and MEDLINE, focusing on studies beyond 2010. The study acknowledges limitations such as qualitative data constraints and sample size dependency. The conclusion emphasizes that decreased job satisfaction, low self-esteem, lack of support, and patient-related problems contribute to stress, recommending compensation, rotational shifts, and stress-buster programs for psychiatric nurses.

RESEARCH PORTFOLIO
A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF FACTORS
CAUSING WORK STRESS LEVELS IN
PSYCHIATRIC NURSES
2018

Table of Contents
GENERATION OF A RESEARCH.........................................................................................................2
BACKGROUND..............................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................3
OBJECTIVE OF STUDY...................................................................................................................4
SCOPE OF STUDY..........................................................................................................................5
LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................................................6
METHOD OF REVIEW...................................................................................................................7
RESEARCH DESIGN.......................................................................................................................8
LIMITATIONS................................................................................................................................9
TIME SCHEDULE.........................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................11
LITERATURE CRITIQUE...................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................17
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GENERATION OF A RESEARCH
BACKGROUND
Psychiatric nursing or mental health nursing is an integral part of nursing practice. Studies have
shown that nurses are under considerable job stress which can lead to the mental health
disorders and failure in duties (De Looff, et al. 2014). The research is focused on a critical
evaluation of factors causing work stress levels in psychiatric nurses. It is considered as one of
the management issues which portrays the interaction level with psychiatric nurses. The
general working structure of the psychiatric nurses is way too different from other department
nurses.
The working profile of psychiatric nurses covers the intervention strategy, regular interaction
level with patients, and rehabilitation of the patients which faces chronic and complicated
mental health problems. Some of the mental health problems that are faced by nurses are
schizophrenia, dementia, and schizoaffective disorder, psychosis, anxiety, and depression.
Nurses in these areas receive special training in handling the patients but it results in generating
the stress level in them. Some of the identified reasons for the cause of the increase in work
stress level are- Work stress and Burnout among nurse, Comparative less job satisfaction, the
likelihood of job injury, disorientation in thinking. Stressors of nursing have been identified in
the study. However, focusing on the factors of causing stress in the psychiatric nurses has been
investigated (Johnson, et al.2017). The current perception of the work stress level and its
influencing factors are aimed to understand the nurse’s experiences and evaluation of the
factors causing the stress level.
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INTRODUCTION
Psychiatric Nursing is considered as a stressful occupation. It has been identified number of
stressors depending on the area of specialty. However, some of the stressors include poor
working relationship between nurses and other health team members, burn out stress level and
demanding communication and relationship with patients, Understaffed working environment,
lack of support to differentiate mental health problems related to their life, Less Job satisfaction
level and others (Angland, et al. 2014).
Stress has been defined as the circumstances that place psychological demands on a person
through managing the level of stress. Psychiatric nurses need to manage their stress in order to
provide an appropriate care to their patients (Papathanasiou, et al. 2015). Therefore, it is
necessary to nurture and instigate on methods which strengthen the psychiatric nurses to cope
up with job-related stress. The study proposes a critical evaluation of those factors
aforementioned causing stress level and working experiences that are faced by the nurses in
Australia.
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OBJECTIVE OF STUDY
The study has the following objectives:
 To determine the causes of the stress among the Psychiatric nurses in Australia with 2
years experiences
 To identify the difference in the mental health nurses and general nurses on the level of
the stress
 To critically evaluate the factors causing the stress level in psychiatric nurses
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SCOPE OF STUDY
The scope of the research provides a direction for both general and special practices that are
followed by the nurses (Yoshizawa, et al. 2016). The use of the PICO tool helps to deal with the
clinical scenario. The suggested interventions help to determine the factors that are causing
stress level in the psychiatric nurses.
P- Psychiatric Nurses working in Australia experienced 2 years and above
I- Job Satisfaction level can be improved through rotational working and compensating to the
nurses, limiting the working hours and organizing stress buster programs.
C- Comparison to the level of stress between the general nurses and psychiatric nurses
O- Work stress level is critically evaluated
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Job stress is defined as the negative emotion along with the physical responses. In today's
working profession stress is caused by job among usual people, health, and education experts
and other people which are responsible for aiding people i.e. nurses is considered as the top
issues. It is generally caused due to the people working in health and social care centers are
responsible for the health of others and are under the pressure of the different cause of stress.
According to the Foster et al. (2016), new graduates nurses are regarded as precious health
resource with the extent of the experience of 12 months of employment as registered nurses.
The potential reason that emphasized on psychiatric nurses is conflicts with co-workers and lack
of support from the staff. Apart from this, less satisfaction with the head Nurses is contributed
through measuring the negative effect of lack of understanding and support from their
managers. Another measure cause that has been faced by the nurses is the low self-esteem or
lack of confidences. It has been allocated in many clinical areas outside of their choice (Foster,
et al. 2016). The transition from students to registered nurses in Australia is considered to be a
major center of attraction since 1990. The hospital-based learning environment and approach
by health agencies have helped in developing a program which can assist those nurses to deal
with problems. This has provided an opportunity and support to the students and nursing staff
in a formalized way.
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METHOD OF REVIEW
A research spanning factors of stress in Australian nurses with the working experiences 2years
and above was included. The analysis focused on the factors of stress and stress outcomes,
along with reviewing the research that examined strategies (Johnson, et al.2017). Qualitative
method is approached in order to determine the factors of increasing level of stress in the
psychiatric nurses.
Search Strategy
Relevant literature was reviewed following the systematic searches of library holdings and
databases, including CINAHL, ProQuest, PsycINFO, MEDLINE (PubMed) and science direct using
the following keywords in various combinations: ‘Psychiatric’, nurse, stress, factors, job
satisfaction and other. The manual searches were performed on nursing journals through the
help of American Nurses Credentialing Centre ANCC published articles. The research was
refined and an academic proven article with the combinational searches beyond the year 2010
has been testified in the study (Wang, et al. 2015). The Cohort and meta-analysis study was
preferred in order to evaluate the critical perspective of the psychiatric nurses. Later on,
secondary research resources were approached they are articles, newspaper, journals,
magazine reference at a lower level.
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RESEARCH DESIGN
Papers selected for gaining the information of the research can be assessed by two
independent reviewers for methodological quality (Drury, et al. 2014). The review of perceived
causes of stress among the participant’s i.e. psychiatric nurses has been considered. The most
appropriate design in the study is a qualitative survey of the Australian nurses with experience
of 2 years or more (Hayes, et al. 2015). Qualitative research is possible as it aggregates the
findings to generate a set of quality and similarity. These are subjected to a Meta-synthesis and
comprehensive measures to identify the cause of stress in the narrative form.
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LIMITATIONS
The study involves the following limitations (Naseem, 2017).
 The qualitative data collected may contain some limitation which may be included in the
current study
 The sample size depends on the nature of research
 The implementation of the data collection method can flaw the nature of research
 Meta-analysis of the secondary has not been represented appropriately
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TIME SCHEDULE
ACTIVITIES/
MONTHS
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
BEGINNING OF
PROJECT
ADMINISTRATIVE
ALIGNMENT
VIABILITY CHECK
CONSTRAINTS
HUMAN
RESOURCE
REQUIREMENTS
JOB SCHEDULE
ECONOMICAL
ESTIMATION
HAZARD
SUPERVISION
ETHICAL AND
OTHER ISSUES
CHANGE IN
MANAGEMENT
ACTIVITIES
COMMUNICATION
BOARD
APPROVALS AND
FINAL EXECUTION
(Sharon & Dori, 2017)
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CONCLUSION
The study is aimed at finding out the main causes of the stress among the psychiatric nurses.
The findings presented the causes are due to the decreases in satisfaction level of job, low self-
esteem, lack of support from people, conflicts with co-workers, interrelated to the problems of
the patients etc. The outcomes of the study include the information of the nurses working in
Australia with experience of 2years or more. It has been revealed that there was a weak
negative correlation between the work stress and job satisfaction in psychiatric nurses. Based
on this, it is highly recommended that nurses must be compensated for their job, must
schedule their job on rotational shifts and organizing the programs supporting stress buster in
the psychiatric nurses (Nurjannah, et al.2014).
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