Nurses coping with daily stressors

Background: During their workday, nurses face a variety of stressors that are dealt with using different coping strategies. One criticism of the contextual models of work stress is that they fail to focus on individual responses like coping with stress. Neverthless, little is know about the momentary determinants of coping in nurses.

Objectives: To identify the momentary predictors of problem-focused approaching coping and emotion-focused approaching coping, as well as those for seeking social support and refusal coping strategies, during the working day in nurses.

Design: This study uses descriptive, correlational, two-level design with repeated measures.

Settings: Wards of two University hospitals.

Participants: A random cohort of 113 nurses was studied.

Methods: An ecological momentary assessment was made of demand, control, effort, reward, nursing task, coping, mood and fatigue, and of coping style by questionnaire. Multilevel two-level statistical analyses were perfo...