MANAGEMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AMONG DOCTORS AND NURSES OF FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE (FMC), YENAGOA, BAYELSA STATE

Abstract

The study investigated the management of occupational stress among medical doctors and nurses in the Federal Medical Centre Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The research design adopted was descriptive research design. The population of the study was 996 medical doctors and nurses from all the departments. A sample of 285 health workers (125 doctors and 160  nurses) was drawn by means of non-proportionate stratified random sampling and convenience sampling techniques. Self-designed Sources of Occupational stress Questionnaire (SOSQ) and Job Stress Coping Strategies Questionnaire (JSCSQ) were used for data collection.The research questions were answered by mean and standard deviation, while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that doctors and nurses differ significantly in their use of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies for occupational stress. The researchers recommended that administrators of hospitals should provide more stress coping programmes for nurses that would encourage them to use more problem and emotion-oriented coping strategies for work-related stress.