Studies Examine Nurse Managers’ Ability to Cope with Job Stress
Monday January 29, 2007
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In the first study, consultant Maria Shirey, RN, MS, MBA, CNAA, BC, of Evansville, Ind., identified changes over two decades in sources of nurse managers’ stress. She urged research into the way they cope with stress, its effects on their health, and the quest for long-term answers.
“Stress and Coping in Nurse Managers: Two Decades of Research” is Shirey’s look at managerial stress related to today’s work environment vs. earlier sources like nurse-physician relationships and the transition to supervisory roles.
The second study, by Sharon Judkins, RN, PhD, CNAA, BC, of the University of Texas at Arlington, found a benefit in organizations’ increasing nurse manager “hardiness” — the ability to experience a high degree of stress without falling ill. Judkins and colleagues said managers could cultivate hardiness by instituting policies promoting collaborative practice, self-scheduling, and shared governance and by increasing staff education on coping with stress.
The study — “Hardiness, Stress, and Use of Ill-Time Among Nurse Managers: Is There a Connection?” — found that particularly strong nurse managers solved or altered stressful situations rather than avoiding or escaping from them through absenteeism, using 35% less sick time than other nurse managers.
Both studies ran in the July/August 2006 issue of Nursing Economic$.
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