American Research Journal of Emergency and Intensive Critical Care

AbstrAct Aims: This study identified general causes of work related stress among critical care nurses in the eastern province of Sri Lanka; and identified the degree of stress experienced by Sri Lankan nurses in critical care settings. Method: A descriptive quantitative cross sectional study was conducted using the self-administered questionnaire. Convenience sampling technique was used to select 105 critical care nurses working at 2 government hospitals in the eastern province of Sri Lanka. Results: Of the 105 respondents, general causes of stress was identified due to having more dependents (45%), 85% was due to extended duty shift more than 100 hours, another 35% was due to managerial issues at work place, 25% was due to inadequate partner’s contribution and 25% was due to improper workplace facilities. To specifically identify the degree of stress according to the respondents, mild stress (n=40), was identified among those who extended shift duties more than 100 hours, while moderate (n=38) for those who had poor relationship with their fellow staff or with doctors rotating in their units, the extreme stress (n=14) was due to managerial paper works documenting incident reports, and worst (n=8) was due to emergency leaves or inadequate staffing. Keywords: Nursing, stress, work-related stress, critical care nursing, and cross-sectional, Sri Lanka