Coping Strategies for Stress: A Comparative Study among Nurses Working in Multi-and Single-Speciality Hospitals

This survey-based qualitative descriptive research has been undertaken in Tirunelveli city, Tamilnadu to understand and differentiate coping strategies being followed by nurses working in both multi-speciality and single-speciality hospitals to deal with stress and to examine the relationship between demographic variables and coping strategies. The structured format of coping strategies established by Folkman and Lazarus has been used in this study to analyse and differentiate coping styles of nurses. It has been analysed under five dimensions namely positive and action focused coping, wishful thinking and positive reappraisal, distancing, escape and avoidance and seeking social support coping. The study has sampled 120 (60 from multi-speciality hospitals and 60 from single-speciality hospitals) nurses qualified with Diploma in General Nursing and Midwifery and Bachelor of Science in Nursing courses. Mean, standard deviation and coefficient of variation have been used to rank and differentiate the dimensions of coping strategies. Kruskal–Wallis test has been administered to examine the relationship between coping strategies and demographic variables. The result indicates that there is no marked differences in the perception of the nurses working in both kinds of organisation towards majority of the coping strategies discussed under five dimensions of the Folkman and Lazarus coping strategies. The perception level of majority of the respondents working in both kinds of hospitals has been at medium level towards all coping strategies.