Stress measurement among charge nurses: developing a cross-cultural tool

Correlates of delirium care competency among shift leader nurses in acute medical wards in Japan: A cross-sectional study

AIM

This study identified the correlates of delirium care competency among shift leader nurses in acute medical wards in Japan.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2019 to February 2020. We sent request letters to a random sample of 381 general acute care hospitals in Japan. Of these, 68 agreed to participate and distributed 735 self-administered questionnaires to shift leader nurses working in their acute medical wards. The questionnaire included the Self-rated Delirium Care Competency Scale for Shift Leader Nurses in Acute Medical Wards (DCSL-M), developed by the authors. It gathered data on the respondents' demographics and delirium care competency, and investigated a total of 25 variables. We calculated descriptive statistics and examined associations between delirium care competency and the demographics using multiple logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

Of the total, 301 (40.9%) questionnaires were returned. Delirium care competency was high among shift leader nurses who: (1) had experience as a clinical practice preceptor for nursing students; (2) had experience attending training related to dementia or delirium care; (3) worked at a hospital/ward that charged additional medical fees for dementia care; and (4) had access to consulting psychiatrists to refer patients with delirium.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest the need for efforts to improve delirium care competency among shift leader nurses who work in hospitals that do not charge additional medical fees for dementia care or that do not have consulting psychiatrists to refer patients with delirium.

Traumatic and Routine Stressors in Emergency Nurses: A Turkish Validity and Reliability Study

INTRODUCTION

Emergency nurses face traumatic and stressful events of many different forms and severity. The aim of this study is to test the validity and reliability of the Traumatic and Routine Stressors Scale on Emergency Nurses in Turkey.

METHODS

This methodological study was conducted with 195 nurses who had been working in the emergency service for at least six months and could be reached via an online questionnaire. Opinions of 9 experts were obtained with the translation-back translation method for linguistic validity, and the Davis technique was used for testing content validity. Test-retest analysis was used to test the time-invariance of the scale. Construct validity was evaluated with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The reliability of the scale was evaluated based on item-total correlation and Cronbach's alpha coefficients.

RESULTS

The expert opinions were found to be in agreement with each other. Factor analysis results were acceptable, the Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the scale were 0.890 for the frequency factor, 0.928 for the impact factor, and 0.866 for the total scale. It was determined that the correlation values for the time-invariance of the scale were 0.637 for the frequency factor and 0.766 for the effect factor, and the scale had good test-retest reliability.

DISCUSSION

The Turkish version of the Traumatic and Routine Stressors Scale on Emergency Nurses, has high levels of validity and reliability. We recommend that the scale be used to evaluate the state of being affected by traumatic and routine stressors among emergency service nurses.

Effect of leader mindfulness on hindrance stress in nurses: The social mindfulness information processing path

AIM

This study aimed to explore the influence of leader mindfulness on hindrance stress in nurses. Based on the social mindfulness framework, the mediating effects of nurses' perceptions of their leaders' perspective taking and empathic concern and how they are moderated by mindfulness of nurses were investigated.

DESIGN

A time-lagged cross-sectional survey was conducted.

METHODS

The convenience sampling method was adopted. Data were collected at three time points from January to September 2020. A total of 393 paired datasets of nurses and their leaders were collected from 28 Chinese 3A grade hospitals. SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 were used for data analysis and hypotheses testing.

RESULTS

(1) Leader mindfulness significantly reduced nurse hindrance stress. (2) Both nurses' perceptions of their leaders' perspective taking and empathic concern mediated the relationship between leader mindfulness and nurse hindrance stress. Empathic concern was more effective than perspective taking in the process of leader mindfulness for reducing nurse hindrance stress. Nurses' perceptions of their leaders' perspective taking completely mediated the relationship between empathic concern and nurse hindrance stress. (3) Nurse mindfulness moderated the relationship between leader mindfulness and nurses' perceptions of their leaders' empathic concern but had no significant effect on the relationship between leader mindfulness and nurses' perceptions of their leaders' perspective taking.

CONCLUSION

Leader mindfulness was an important interpersonal factor for reducing nurse hindrance stress. Nurses' perceptions of their leaders' perspective taking and empathic concern were pivotal mechanisms underlying the effectiveness of leader mindfulness. Nurse mindfulness is a situational factor that contributes to the effectiveness of leader mindfulness.

IMPACT

Hospitals can benefit from mindfulness interventions by improving the mindfulness of leaders and nurses. Nurse managers are encouraged to promote social mindfulness, which will enable perspective taking and empathic concern by nurses and thus reduce hindrance stress on nurses during the pandemic.

The Nursing Stress Scale-Spanish Version: An Update to Its Psychometric Properties and Validation of a Short-form Version in Acute Care Hospital Settings

Stressful working conditions are correlated with a negative impact on the well-being of nurses, job satisfaction, quality of patient care and the health of the staff. The Nursing Stress Scale (NSS) has been shown to be a valid and reliable instrument to assess occupational stressors among nurses. This study updates the psychometric properties of the “NSS-Spanish version” and validates a short-form version. A cross-sectional design was carried out for this study. A reliability analysis and a confirmatory factor analysis and an exploratory factor analysis were undertaken. Items were systematically identified for reduction using statistical and theoretical analysis. Correlation testing and criterion validity confirmed scale equivalence. A total of 2195 Registered Nurses and 1914 Licensed Practical Nurses were enrolled. The original 34-item scale obtained a good internal consistency but an unsatisfactory confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis. The short-form Nursing Stress Scale (11-items) obtained a good internal consistency for Registered Nurses (α = 0.83) and for Licensed Practical Nurses (α = 0.79). Both Nursing Stress Scales obtained a strong correlation for Registered Nurses (rho = 0.904) and for Licensed Practical Nurses (rho = 0.888). The 11-item version of the Nursing Stress Scale is a valid and reliable scale to assess stress perception among Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses. Its short-form nature improves the psychometric properties and the feasibility of the tool.

Development and validation of an inventory to measure stressful events: Findings from a population-based survey

Background: Development of tools for measuring stress has been considered by mental health researchers for many years. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a "Stressful Events Inventory"(SEI) using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses.

Methods: Using a representative sample (n=6000) from all people who reside in Tehran, the validity of the inventory was confirmed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and its reliability was also confirmed by Cronbach's alpha.

Results: Eleven major sets of stressful events were identified as follow: political problems (α=0.731), neighborhood’s problems (α=0.739), livelihood problems (α=0.609), fear of the future (α=0.663), educational events (α=0.635), educational changes (α=0.704), individual changes (α=0.463), occupational difficulties (α=0.64), housing problems (α=0.69), problems related to occupational relations (α=0.46), and family problems (α=0.69). The value of correlation between the factors was equal to 0.82 and the value of variance determined by these factors was 0.49 (r^2=0.49). In the confirmatory factor analysis, these factors also had an appropriate fitness (RMSEA=0.02).

Conclusion: The developed instrument has suitable psychometric properties, which make it appropriate for future research on psychosocial stress.

Development and psychometric properties of the stressor scale for emergency nurses

INTRODUCTION

Emergency department nurses are exposed to specific stressors and report higher stress levels than nurses in other hospital departments. This study aimed to develop and test the psychometric properties of a questionnaire-based instrument for identifying stressors for emergency department nurses.

METHODS

The instrument's content and face validities were examined by five experts and nurses in emergency nursing field. The test-retest reliability was examined on 30 emergency department nurses. The construct validity, including an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis, was tested on 405 emergency department nurses. Cronbach's alpha values and intra-class coefficients were calculated.

RESULTS

The instrument's content and face validities were satisfactory. The exploratory factor analysis provided a five-factor solution, whereas the confirmatory factor analysis provided a final four-factor solution with 25 items distributed among the factors Life and death situations, Patients' and families' actions and reactions, Technical and formal support, and Conflicts. The Cronbach's alpha values ranged from 0.89 to 0.93 per factor, and the intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.89, indicating good homogeneity and stability.

CONCLUSIONS

The instrument's content, face, and construct validities were satisfactory, and the internal consistency and test-retest reliability were good. This instrument can be useful in the management of emergency departments.