Experience of workplace stressors among military nurses

<b>Aim:</b> To explore and provide factual information on how non-deployed military nurses (registered, enrolled, and auxiliary) at designated military hospitals experience workplace stressors.<b>Methods:</b><b> </b>The study followed a qualitative descriptive design to explore and describe how non-deployed military nurses (registered, enrolled, or auxiliary) at a designated military hospital in South Africa experience workplace stressors and provide truthful descriptions thereof. This study was conducted at one of the three Military hospitals in South Africa. A purposeful sampling method was used. A pilot study of one participant was conducted to test and strengthen the quality of the research interview instrument. Following supervisor feedback, data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews with 18 participants over a period of three weeks. Inclusion criteria: The participants had to be non-deployed military nurses of any category (registered, enrolled or auxiliary), they should have worked at the designated Military Hospital for at least one year or longer and had some military training, including the 2-week induction course, should be military nurses who have not been on deployment, detached duty or full-time study leave for at least one year. Exclusion criteria: Military nursing students and all other health care professionals. The sample size was determined by two criteria: saturation and sufficiency, and the sample consisted of registered, enrolled, and auxiliary military nurses. Saturation was achieved with participant 16, and two additional interviews were conducted; however, no new data were identified as the existing data were replicated. The researcher used literature and the JD-R model’s concepts to develop the semi-structured interview guide. Demographic information regarding participants' age, nursing category, and years of experience in the military nursing field was collected to assist the researcher in identifying characteristics, trends, and patterns within the population and to describe the sample. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, and transcribed data were analysed using Tesch's data analysis steps. Participants’ information was coded with a unique study code to de-identify their data, not linking processed data to their names.<b>Significance of the data: </b>This data is significant because it might address the knowledge gap of workplace stressors that non-deployed military nurses ’experience, and it could encourage future research in the South African Military Health Service. Informative programmes, based on the data collected, could be developed. This study could contribute to the organisational decision-making processes to prevent or reduce workplace stressors and improve working conditions and patient care.<br><br><br><br>