Stress, anxiety and depression levels among nurses working at Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, Pakistan

Abstract

Introduction: Though mental disorders have remained global issues, their relationship with stressful life styles and occupations are a modern phenomenon. Anxiety and depression can become permanent components of personality, thereby affecting productivity and social activities.

Objective: To determine the stress, anxiety and depression levels among nurses working at Hayatabad Medical Complex, Medical Teaching Institution, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

Materials & Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 100 nurses by using convenient sampling technique at Hayatabad Medical Complex, Medical Teaching Institution, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, over 6 months duration from March 2020 to August 2020. A valid, reliable and adopted DASS-21 Scale was used for data collection. The data were analyzed for descriptive statistics by SPSS version 22.0.

Results: Among all participants, 76% were female and 26% were male and have experience from 6 months to 20 years. More than half of the participants were highly affected by stress, anxiety and depression, and significant associations have been found between demographic variables, stress, anxiety and depression. The mean score of Stress, Anxiety and Depression was 16.74, 14.12 and 16.44 respectively.

Conclusion: In conclusion, health care settings should provide their employees a respectful, culture sensitive and supportive environment to single female staff where they feel safe and happy. Lastly, cross-sectional surveys should be conducted on these psychological problems to find out the key factors behind them.

Keywords:  Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Nurses, Tertiary Care Hospital