Stress – Realities experienced by nurses working in an intensive care unit

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the level of stress in nurses of an intensive care unit (ICU).Method: Quantitative, descriptive study of a sample of 26 nurses in the ICU of a public hospital.The project was approved by the research ethics committee (Protocol E-016/10).Data were collected through two instruments: The Nursing Stress Inventory and a sociodemographic questionnaire.Statistical analysis included Student’s t-test, Pearson’s correlation and Variance Analysis, to a 5% significance level.Results: A significant association was observed between longer time working in the area and higher stress levels.Conclusion: The training time of less than ten years with a career that is still on the rise, linked to a context that allows stressful challenges, may have favored facilitatory and compensatory coping mechanisms with lower degrees of impact on the organism.