Psychological stress associated with outpatient oncology nursing

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Abstract
Emotional burnout among health care professionals is a topic that has begun to receive increasing attention. While there is some evidence to suggest that various high-stress factors are endemic to professionals working with cancer patients,3 few empirical investigations have examined whether these factors generalize to other caretakers working under similarly stressful situations. The present work reports data deriving from a study conducted in order to examine stress associated with nurses working in oncology, cardiac, ICU, and OR units. The major objective of this study was to assess whether nurses working with cancer patients would report greater stress as a function of their job as compared to nurses working in the other three areas. We found considerable similarity between these groups on temporary stress factors (e.g., daily mood swings), and also found more enduring stress reported by nurses working with cancer patients. It is argued that this prediction for report of long-term personal stress was based on the seemingly more debilitating experience (e.g., administering chemotherapy) associated with caring for the cancer patient1 than with the cardiac, ICU, or OR patient.

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