Level of stress and its determinants among Intensive Care Unit staff

CONTEXT: Stress is a usual and normal part of our daily lives. It is a normal physical reaction to an internal or external pressure that is placed on a person's system. Extended periods of stress can cause destructive changes in the body. OBJECTIVES: (1) To assess the prevalence of stress and its level among intensive care unit (ICU) staff (doctors and nurses) of various hospitals and (2) to correlate the level of stress with certain variables. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted in the ICU of various hospital of Pune for a period of 1 month. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighty-two ICU staff (doctors and nurses) were contacted and interviewed using pretested proforma containing DASS stress rating scale (for stress only). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Data analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for the Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0 software. To compare the level of stress with various parameters, we used Chi-square test. P value <0.05 was considered to be significant. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of stress among ICU staff (doctors and nurses) was 52.43%. Prevalence of stress among ICU doctors was 36.58% and nurses was 68.29%. According to the DASS (for stress only), 19.51% doctors were mildly stressed, 14.63% were moderately stressed, and 2.44% were severely stressed. Among nurses, 48.78% were mildly stressed and 19.51% were moderately stressed. CONCLUSIONS: The result indicated that prevalence of stress among ICU staff (doctors and nurses) is high.