Introduction
Stress is the mental and emotional strain caused by challenging or overwhelming conditions. It is widely understood that a person’s social environment dramatically adds to their stress levels, particularly the elements that trigger specific emotionally or behaviorally stressful events.
Impact among nurses’ activities in healthcare settings leads to decreased productivity, emotional and physical injury, and a general inability to meet corporate objectives. In practice, nurses encounter various negative impacts due to behavioral and occupational stress, including memory and focus impairments that impair their ability to perform their jobs properly.
Background
Nursing professionals face severe occupational problems when stress impacts their behavior while providing patient care. Workplace stress among nurses has contributed to several problems, including injuries and cognitive impairment (Rayan et al., 2019). Nurse stress has been identified as a significant worldwide problem in nursing (Rayan et al., 2019). Nurse burnout is commonly attributed to the heavy demands of the profession, the lack of resources to help alleviate those demands, and the negative pressure from patients, supervisors, relatives, and the surrounding environment (Rayan et al., 2019).
There is a consensus that stress can be caused by working in a hostile workplace with inadequate resources and no regular opportunities to learn about advances in the field. According to data and research by Vahedian-Azimi et al. (2019), more than 60% of nurses are dealing with stress, making nursing the most catastrophic occupation that has an impact on service delivery. Over 6,000 nurses were placed on mandatory leave after becoming ill (Chegini et al., 2019). It has been stated that understaffing in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) has resulted in long shifts for many nurses.
Rationale
There are various reasons why it is critical to investigate nurses’ stress and its effects on their work behavior. Nurses’ stress levels significantly impact their job behavior, which has a detrimental impact on patient outcomes. When nurses are emotionally or cognitively exhausted, they are more likely to make caregiving errors that can be fatal to their patients (Rayan et al., 2019). Because of the stress, nurses and patients may need help communicating, resulting in miscommunication and incomplete or erroneous information (Chegini et al., 2019). It is critical to understand how stress affects the behavior of nurses at work to devise effective interventions to prevent the detrimental effects of stress on patient care.
Research Question
The question that will guide the research for this study is, “What is the influence of stress on work behavior among nurses?” This inquiry seeks to explore how stress affects nurses’ behavior during their work.
Question Model
This research uses a descriptive research approach to explore the connection between nurses’ stress and their actions on the job. The study will take a quantitative approach, surveying nurses in various healthcare settings to compile its results (Tracy, 2019). The study will be able to collect consistent data and offer a nuanced quantitative examination of the correlation between nurse burnout and poor performance on the job if it takes this strategy.
Aim
This study’s major aim is to assess the impact that stress has on nurses’ conduct while they are on the job. This research proposal aims to investigate how stress influences nurses’ conduct while they are on the job and how this, in turn, influences the level of care given to patients.
Objectives
With the overarching goal of learning how stress affects nurses’ actions on the job in mind, this study will focus on four distinct objectives. First, examine the extent to which nurses are stressed. The second objective is to discover what stresses nurses out the most. Interventions to reduce nurses’ stress will greatly benefit from this data. The third objective is to examine how nurses’ stress levels affect their performance on the job.
Databases
Choosing suitable databases is crucial for ensuring that the study includes a wide range of relevant material. PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Library will be used to search for relevant articles for this study. These databases were selected because of their high visibility in the field of nursing research and the breadth of material they are expected to provide in response to the research topic.
Search Terms
The terms “stress,” “work behavior,” “nurses,” “healthcare,” “patient care,” and “burnout.” will all be used as search criteria to help narrow down the available material to what is relevant to the study’s objectives. These terms are highly relevant to the study’s central inquiry and should include various relevant sources.
Selection Criteria
The research will include participation from registered nurses in various healthcare settings, including hospitals, clinics, and long-term care institutions. A combination of self-reporting questionnaires and objective assessments will be utilized to determine the participants’ stress levels and work behavior (Tracy, 2019). The surveys will use validated scales and instruments to measure stress levels, work behavior, and coping mechanisms.
Inclusion Criteria
Participants must meet specific requirements to be eligible to participate in the study. These requirements include being a registered nurse currently working in a healthcare setting, being able to read and comprehend the questionnaire, and having worked as a registered nurse for a minimum of six months.
Exclusion Criteria
Nurses diagnosed with a mental health disorder, such as anxiety or depression, and those on leave of absence or unable to fulfill their job tasks due to physical or mental health reasons are not eligible to participate in this study. Nurses with less than six months of experience in the field and those who decline to participate or grant consent are excluded.
Screening
The screening technique used in a systematic review determines the quality and applicability of the articles examined. Two independent assessors will review the submitted articles and determine if they fulfill the study’s selection criteria. The reviewers will initially review the titles and abstracts of the papers in the databases. After that, reviewers will use the selection criteria to determine if the full-text articles are suitable for inclusion.
Appraisal Methods
The quality of these studies will be evaluated using the Cochrane risk of bias method. This instrument provides a systematic method for analyzing randomized controlled trials and other research projects to determine the potential for bias (Tracy, 2019). Each study will be evaluated for its potential for bias by a minimum of two reviewers, with disagreements settled by discussion or the involvement of a third reviewer.
Characteristics of Studies’ Table
The characteristics of the chosen studies will be tabulated. The table will list the author, year of publication, study type, sample size, data source, analysis methods, results, and caveats. With this table, we can quickly compare and contrast the most salient aspects of each study, speeding up our work toward synthesizing the findings.
Key Milestones
At the onset, researchers will craft a research proposal and then scour the existing literature and databases for studies that fit the criteria. Studies will be screened and chosen using selection criteria, with two reviewers making the final determination on article eligibility. The Cochrane risk of bias tool will evaluate the studies’ credibility before data are extracted and quality assessed. The data will, therefore, be examined through analytic and synthesizing data using suitable statistical methodologies.
Reference List
Chegini, Z., Asghari Jafarabadi, M. and Kakemam, E. (2019) ‘Occupational stress, quality of working life and turnover intention amongst nurses,’ Nursing in Critical Care, 24(5), pp. 283–289. Web.
Rayan, A., Sisan, M. and Baker, O. (2019) ‘Stress, workplace violence, and burnout in nurses working in king abdullah medical city during Al-Hajj season,’ Journal of Nursing Research, 27(3). Web.
Tracy, S.J., 2019. ‘Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact.’ John Wiley & Sons.