Background: The population of Taiwan is aging rapidly and the demand for long-term care is increasing. Nursing staff is the most crucial manpower in providing direct care to nursing home residents and, as the demand rises, so is their job stress.Object: The purpose of this study was to investigate the job stress and its related factors among the nursing staff working in long-term care facilities in central Taiwan.Method:A total of 200 nurses were selected from 44 facilities (15 of them were independent sursing homes, 6 were hospital affiliated nursing homes, and 23 were sernior care centers). Questionnaires containing the scales of Occupational Stress ndicator (OSI) were mailed to them to collection in-formation regarding their working conditions, job stress and related factors and demographics and educational background information.Results:Results showed that 99.5% of the nurses were females aged between 30 and 40 years old. No significant differences were found in their scoring on the OSI scales across different types of long-term care facilities. In terms of the coping strategies nursing staff used when confronting their job-related stress, no significant differences were found across the 3 types of long-term care facilities.Conclusion: Findings of this study suggested that using appropriate coping strategies care moderate the harmful effects brought by job-related stress among the nursing staff working in the surveyed long-term care facilities.
