The Aviodance coping strategy, stress, and job satisfacyion in Thailand's hospital nurses

Abstract

          Stress is an important issue in the nursing profession and it appears to be related to how nurses cope with occupational stress. Data were based on a sample of 200 Thai nurses working at 14 hospitals in Bangkok and three provinces along the eastern seaboard. The findings showed that sources of stress for Thailand’s nurses were similar to their Western colleagues: workload, organizational support, dealing with patients, and home/work conflicts. In addition, nurses in Thailand utilized problem solving, social support, avoidance, and relaxation/meditation as methods of coping with stress. Consistently, multiple regression analyses revealed significant relationships between the avoidance coping strategy and the amount of nursing stress. Employing the avoidance coping strategy as well as occupational stress were also negatively correlated with job satisfaction. Although nurses in Thailand employ a number of methods of a coping, there is one which clearly predicts negative job satisfaction and level of occupational stress, that is nurses who use avoidance as a strategy for coping with stress. The main recommendation arising from this study is that hospital administrators learn to recognize staff who are avoiding stress and consider stress management programs so that appropriate coping strategies would be adopted