A Systematic Study to Investigate Stress and Stress-Coping Strategies among Nurses in India

Abstract

This is a systematic study of the literature among nurses in India regarding stress and stress-coping strategies. A search for studies published in English between 2009 and 2020 was conducted on the Microsoft Academics, Google Scholar, and ProQuest databases. A total of 1784 articles were retrieved and 21 articles were identified as per inclusion criteria for final review. This paper concludes that Indian nurses experience moderate to high stress. Some of the major stress-related factors identified through this study were workload, inadequate resources, low salaries, doctors’ attitude, posting in busy departments, family-work conflict, and patient death. Indian nurses commonly use positive appraisal, problem-solving, and social support as strategies to handle stress. In some cases, positive thinking and taking professional guidance were also used to cope with stress. The present systematic analysis takes into account the quantitative and qualitative studies related to stress and its coping strategies conducted among nurses in India.

Keywords: Coping Strategies, Nurses, Positive Reappraisal, Stress, Mechanisms, Workload

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