Modern life is full of stress all the time. Stress has striking influence on humans. The reaction to stress is mainly reflected in the physiological, psychological, and behavioral aspects of a person. Furthermore, it can result in great damage to a workplace. In the unique environment of health stations, what kind of work stress do public health nurses suffer? After consulting the work stress questionary of the Institute of Occupational Safety & Health and the real situations of health stations, we design the stress questionary for public health nurses as a research tool to do a cross-section survey. The objects are the public health nurses of 43 health stations in Taichung and Nantou Counties and Cities. There total number of questionaries sent out is 395. 347 completed questionaries are returned and of them 269 are valid.
The result of this study shows:
1. The public health nurses in Taichung County experience heavier work stress than those in Nantou County and Taichung City.
2. The public health nurses experience the heaviest stress in the aspects of work adaptation and workload. In these aspects, 3 topmost factors of stress are heavy responsibilities, endless work, and complicated work. The stress is mainly due to workload and requirements of the Health Bureau. Besides, it reflects the problem of insufficient labor force.
3. The coping methods of public health nurses are positive attitudes and social support.
4. The public health nurses show reaction to stress mostly in the psychological aspect. Public health nurses in Taichung County has the most striking reaction to stress.
5. The more effective coping method for work stress is positive attitudes.
6. We can get work stress regression function from the number of hygiene administration duties, Taichung City, and Taichung County.
7. We can get regression function for reaction to stress from work adaptation and workload, positive attitudes, monotonous and boring work, compensation action, and the number of duties in health professional work and hygiene administration.
This study proposes the following strategies for public health nurses to cope with heavy work more easily. 1. Adjusting work. 2. Being professional. 3. Clarifying duties. 4. Improving achievement system. 5. Setting up a mailbox for interchange of feelings. 6. Performing personal work stress management.
