Perceived Work-Related Stressors and Its Relationship with the Physiological and Psychological Well Being of Nursing Faculty Members

Abstract

Background: Work related stress in nursing education is gaining the attention of nurseeducators and nurse researchers as the effects of stress on learning, persistence, academic success, and student satisfaction have been recognized. Nurse educators are facing the challenge of creating new ways of teaching and facilitating enhancedlearning experiences in clinical practice environments that are inherently complex, highly demanding, and unpredictable. The literature consistently reports the negativeeffects of excess stress and unsupportive relationships on wellbeing, self-efficacy, self-esteem,learning, persistence, and success (Del Prato et. al 2011).Aim of the study: The research study was looking at exploring the perceived work-relatedstressors and its relationship with the physiological and psychological wellbeing ofnursing faculty members working at the 3colleges of nursing affiliated to the National Guard health affairs, King Saud bin AbedAL Aziz for health sciences.Methods: An exploratory correlation comparative research design was utilized and a nonprobability (convenience) sample was designed to include all nursing facultymembers from the three sister colleges. The tool of this study consists of 5 main partsincluding the sociodemographic data of the participants and the Health and SafetyExecutive Management standards indicator tool (HSE indicator Tool) developed byCousins et al., (2004), comprises 35 items within seven stressor subscales in the formof short sentences and uses a 5-point Likert response scale to explore the work relatedstressors among nursing faculty members. Results: A total of  82 faculty members currently working in the three sister nursing colleges affiliated to King Saud bin Abdul-Aziz University or Health Sciences ,more than three quarters of the participants were non Saudi (n = 67, 81.7 %) .With regard to the work-related stressors all participants in the three settings mentioned that they have to work intensively as the most reported stressor with mean scores of 1.76 + 1.13, 2 + .83 and 2.27 + .55 for Riyadh, Jeddah and Alahssa subjects respectively.Kruskal-Wallis test showed statistically significant difference between the three groups with regard to their agreement about the statement “I find my job stressful” k = 6.531, p = .048.Three major sources of stress were identified including: insufficient funding and resources; unreasonable expectations from colleagues; and “lack of promotion opportunity” Conclusion and Recommendation: Work related stressors can no longer be considered an occasional, personal problem to beremedied with palliatives. It is becoming an increasingly global phenomenon, affecting allcategories of workers, all workplaces and all countries.From the results of the current study we can conclude that the academic staffs perceived their Job as stressful besides the difference in their perception to the factors and resources causing stress. Therefore, there is a need to understand the nature ofthat problem and to better manage it as, those stressors can detrimentally influence job satisfaction, psychological well-being and physical health.

Key wards: Workplace stress, physiological wellbeing, psychological wellbeing, nursing faculty members, nurse educators, health and wellbeing