Comparison of Stressors Experienced by Patients and Nurses’ Perception on the Patients’ Stressors Admitted in ICU

Abstract

The study sought to compare the stressors experienced by patients and nurses’ perception of the patients’ stressors admitted in intensive care units (ICUs) of selected hospitals of Madurai (TN). Design used in this study was descriptive-comparative study design and purposive sampling technique was employed. The sample size consisted of 80, among these 40 were staff nurses working in ICU and 40 were patients who were admitted in ICU. The study was carried out by using Modified intensive care unit environmental stressors questionnaire (ICUESQ). This tool had 50 items, which are rated in a 4-point Likert-type scale. The items corresponded to stressors that are related to physical stressors (13 items), Psychological stressors (22 items) and the ICU Environment stressors (15 items). The data obtained were analysed by inferential statistics and descriptive statistics. The findings revealed that mean score of stressors experienced by patients was higher than the nurses mean score. The most stressful items ranked by patients and nurses were similar for first three items.