Study of job status and its correlation factors among head nurses

Objective To determine the job stressors,coping styles and physical and mental health of head nurses and the relationship between them.Methods Eighty-six head nurses from 2 general hospitals were investigated with maslach burnout inventory,the job stressors scale,the coping style scale,and Short Term 36 Health Survey Questionnaire(SF-36).Results The emotion exhaustion and decreased personal accomplishment of head nurses were in the high level.The main job stressors were too heavy workload,lack of social support and handling of death dying.Positive reappraisal,designed problem-solving and self-control were adopted to handle these stressors by head nurses.Correlation analysis showed that the workload and escape avoidance were negatively related to physical and mental health level of head nurses and conflicts with physicians was negatively related to mental health level of head nurses.Conclusion The level of job stress of head nurses is relatively high.There are more kinds of questions on physical and mental health.It is suggested to pay more attention to reduce the workload of head nurses and enhance the level of physical and mental health,and eventually improve the quality of nursing management.