ABSTRACT
Nursing is an extremely stressful occupation. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence and the possible risk factors of work stress and to identify some of its physical and psycho-behavioral health effects among nurses at Zagazig University Hospitals. 108 nurses were randomly selected from four different departmental strata, where each stratum had nearly the same working conditions, and a control group composed of 100 apparently healthy subjects were selected from the administrative departments of the Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University. All subjects were interviewed using a pre-constructed questionnaire; furthermore, they were investigated by measuring their blood pressure and random blood glucose level during work time. The highest percent of the studied nurses were found to have moderate stress [65.7%]; moreover, a very remarkable percent of them [13.9%] suffered from severe stress according to the Expanded Nursing Stress Scale. Working at Causality, Intensive Care, and Emergency Departments, problems with supervisors, excess work load as well as excess working hours, young age, residing away from the hospitals, rotatory work shifts, and low job rank along with short duration of employment with insufficient experience were found to be the most significant risk factors associated with stress among the studied nurses. Moreover, the studied nurses showed a significantly higher prevalence of both short and long term physical and psycho-behavioral stress health effects compared to the control group. It could be concluded that work stress is a major and progressive problem that endangers the health of nurses and the quality of health care provided to the clients at Zagazig University Hospitals, which points to the importance of applying a suitable stress reduction program for proper control