Introduction

Nursing, as a profession related to protection and saving life, appears to be particularly difficult, complex, and multitasking. Many burdens are included in its specificity, which can include, above all, the occurrence of unpredictable situations that threaten the health and life of patients. All this makes the profession of a nurse become a particularly stressful profession. Research shows that due to professional stress, many nurses complain about health problems and disorders in the physical, mental, emotional, and social spheres. A large group of nurses experience the symptoms of burnout syndrome at work. The main research topic of the thesis concerns the sources of stress that appear at the work of the surveyed nurses and the way in which the respondents cope with stress.

Material and methods

The research was carried out in 2019. Seventy-two nurses were included. In order to determine the sources of stress of the examined nurses, a modified scale was used: the situation at the workplace scale by M. Frese, enabling the diagnosis of 4 basic sources of occupational stress related to the following: performed work; physical environment; social environment; and other stressors.

Results

The research shows that the most burdensome factors at the work of the surveyed nurses are as follows: too much work, too much time pressure when performing tasks, too much responsibility for the performed tasks, unfavourable atmosphere at work, mistakes made by other people, conflicts with supervisors, too low salary, and the lack of development opportunities.

Conclusions

The nurses were very vulnerable to mental strain affecting their work. Most of the surveyed nurses were satisfied with their work, but a significant percentage of the respondents reported symptoms of chronic stress and fatigue.