The Effect of Stress Level on Patient Care Behavior in Nurses
Background: Stress is one of the issues that has existed since a ient times, but which the modern world focuses on most, and is affected by many individual social and communal situations. One of these sit uations is the profession in which individuals work. The nursi ng profession is known to be one of the most stress ful occupations. The aim of this study is to determine the effect of the stress level on nursing behavior and the factors affecting the stress they experience. Methods: 205 nurses working in Kayseri City Education and Re search Hospital were included in this study. The research data were collected by the Introductory In formation Form, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Pati nt Care Behaviors 24 Scale. Results: According to the results of the study, the total me an of perceived stress was 44.05+ 6.36 and the total point average of care behavior perception was 5.29+ 0.52. It is observed that there is a relationship between nursing behaviors and perceived stress, and that 5. 6% of variance changes in care behaviors are due to p rceived stress total and 26.6% are due to inadequate self s ufficiency perception and stress disturbance percep tion. These variables appear to contribute significantly to var iance variation in maintenance behavior (p<0.001) Conclusion: It is seen that the level of stress perceived by nu rses positively affects patient care behaviors. However, this can cause nurses to experience extrem e and sustained stress and increased burnout levels For this reason, it is recommended to take steps to reduce t he stress of nurses such as activating individual a nd social support systems, providing skills training to cope with stress, evaluating workload and reducing it if necessary, regulating wages and working environment.