Comparative defense style used by nurses in stressful situations

Nursing is a stressful occupation that its related tensions could affect individual spiritual health. Therefore، defense style against stress is very important for nurses. The aim of this study was comparative defense style used by nursing personnel in stressful situations، in Abadan College of Medical Sciences. This descriptive study was carried out at the Abadan College of Medical Sciences. The study population consisted of 100 nurses from Abadan and Khorramshahr hospitals'' that was selected by purposive Sampling method. Data were collected by questionnaires include demographic data and «Defensive Styles Questionnaire - 40» that consist of three parts of mature defense style، neurotic and immature. Cronbach alpha of the questionnaire was 0. 82 and data were analyzed using SPSS/18 software. Appropriate statistical analysis such as one way ANOVA، Pearson correlation coefficient and t-test were employed to analyze the collected data. The results showed that 67. 3% of Taleghani Hospitals and 67. 2% of Vali-e-asr hospitals’ Nurses used mature defense style as defense mechanism. The mean score for mature defense style was 11. 55±2. 4 which illustrates that most nurses used this type of defense style. Although the results of this study showed that most nurses'' in front of occupational exposure to stress used appropriate and mature defense mechanisms but around one – third of them used inappropriate defense mechanism. Teaching defense style to nurses to cope with anxiety and stress is suggested for future study work.