Evaluating the status of occupational stress and identifying its related risk factors among nurses in Babol City, Northern Iran: A cross-sectional study

The health of people is of great importance and stress is one of the factors affecting health. Stress affects people under different conditions and appears to be responsible for a significant number of illnesses and absenteeism among the workers of healthcare centers.

The present study was performed to assess the occupational stress among the nurses working in the public hospitals of Babol City and identify the associated risk factors.

This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was conducted from October 2016 to April 2017 in the hospitals affiliated to Babol University of Medical Sciences (6 hospitals). A total number of 406 nurses working in the hospitals were selected by the simple random sampling method. The Occupational Stress Questionnaire-HSE was used to assess the nurses’ stress and the demographic data of the participants were collected by a researcher-made form.

According to the results, the lowest and highest scores were related to the communication (9.8 ± 3.3) and demand (23.1 ± 5.1) subscales, respectively.

Based on the regression model, among the independent variables studied, only the variables of gender, weekly working hours, employment status, shift work system, and education level could predict the nurses’ occupational stress.