Influence of Stress on Work Behaviour among Nurses Working in Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), Port Harcourt.

Abstract:

This study focused on the influence of stress on work behaviour among nurses working in Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), Port Harcourt. It was guided with two objectives and two research questions. Cross-sectional survey design was adopted as the research design for this study. The population of the study comprised all the 300 registered nurses in RSUTH. A simple random sampling technique was adopted for this study and a sample of 171 was selected for the study. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.73. Data was analyzed using statistical tools like: mean score and Chi-square at 0.05 level of significance. The result showed that the majority of the nurses have good knowledge of the major causes of stress among nurses working in RSUTH. The result of the analysis further revealed that the relationship between stress and job dissatisfaction was very high; this indicates that as stress increases, job dissatisfaction also increases among nurses working in RSUTH. It was concluded that nurses working in Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH), Port Harcourt had good knowledge of the causes of work stress as well as the coping strategies nurses take to manage stress. It was recommended among others that the hospital administrators should provide structured stress management workshops and coping skills training. These programs should focus on practical techniques such as time management, emotional resilience, and conflict resolution to help nurses translate their knowledge into effective stress reduction strategies.