The Relationship between Job Stress Measured by Effort-Reward Imbalance Model and Mental Health in the Nurses working in government hospitals of Ilam

Job stresss is among the common problems in workplaces. The effort-reward imbalance model shows that uneven relationship between effort and reward leads to stress, which results in negative health outcomes in long term. The present study aimed to assess job stress measured by the effort-reward imbalance model and mental health in the nurses working in government hospitals of Ilam.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on 154 nurses working in government hospitals of Ilam in 2013. The data were collected by General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and Effort Reward Imbalance (ERI) questionnaires. Then, the data were entered into the SPSS statistical software, version 20 and were analyzed using T-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient.
The majority of the nurses (46%) had a desirable status of mental health. On the other hand, 70.15% of the nurses suffered from imbalance in the effort-reward model (job stress). The results showed a significant positive correlation between mental health and job stress (r=0.49, P=0.01). Also, significant correlations were observed between job stress and age (r=0.35, P=0.01), working experience (r=0.34, P=0.01), and weekly working hours (r=0.30, P=0.01).
Considering the positive relationship between mental health and job stress, administrative measures, social supports, improvement of working conditions, and necessary training with regard to dealing with problems are required to reduce, control, and prevent emotional reactions in nurses.