Abstract

Background: Nurses as the main members of the health care team play an important role in the improvement and promotion of society’s health. Stress is well-known in nursing and causes numerous problems for nurses and patients. So the aim of this study was to determine the usage of coping strategies in nurses of the North Khorasan Medical Sciences University hospitals.

Methods: The subjects of this descriptive research were 154 nurses in North Khorasan Hospitals. The data gathering tool included a questionnaire with two parts: personal details and ways to deal with job stress questions. Data gathering was taken about one month. Data was analysed through spss v.14. Descriptive statistics methods, independent t test and ANOVA test were also used.

Results: Major findings of this research showed that %39.6 of Nurses used confronting coping method to a high extent, %50 used distancing method to a low extent, 56.5 used self- controlling method, %61.7 used decoding problems of planning method, %60.4 percent used positive re-evaluation, %62.3 used responsibility, %71.4 used social support method, %53.2 used escape-avoidance method to a low extent. Social support method was the prevailing method of coping with stress

Conclusions: The finding of this study can be a background for the subsequent studies in program planning, reducing the stressors and increasing the compatibility of nurses. It can also be a step towards the recognition of nurses’ problems.

Key words: Coping Strategies, Nursing Personnel, Teaching Hospital