Work Related Stress among Health Care Workers in Mekelle City Administration Public Hospitals, North Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Work related stress is a worldwide epidemic disease. The costs of work related stress es­timated about $5.4 billion each year throughout the globe. Healthcare institutions considered as a high risk and intensive work area for work related stress. However, there is nonexistence of clear and strong data about magnitude of work related stress in healthcare workers in Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to determine magnitude of work related stress in healthcare workers in North Ethiopian public hospitals.Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 5 to 6 May 2015 in 592 healthcare workers who were selected from 3 hospitals. Data were collected through self-administration of standardized questionnaire, which was developed by Health and Safety Executive. The collected data were entered using Epi info version 3.5.4 and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Both binary and Multivariable logistic regression analyses were done to identify important factors having association with work related stress.Result: This study revealed that the magnitude of work related stress in healthcare workers was 46.9%, 95% CI (42.6, 50.8). Significant proportions (56.7%) of healthcare workers were dissatisfied with their current job. Gender, marital status, work experience in years and job satisfaction status were significantly associated with work related stress.Conclusion: Work related stress is significantly high among health care workers. Gender, marital status, work experience and job satisfaction status were identified as factors associated with work related stress. Therefore, it needs to set intervention programs focusing on prevention and control of stress.

Keywords: Work related stress, Healthcare workers, Public hospitals, North Ethiopia