Physical environment, occupational conflict, and ambiguity of roles: Job stressors among nurses

Background and purpose: Providing health services in health centers is a challenging and risky&nbsp;job. So that, realization of quality, performance, efficiency, and fairness in the provision of such&nbsp;services needs a proper condition to ensure that the stress experienced by the personnel is&nbsp;minimized. The present study is a survey of the factors effective on job stress among the nurses&nbsp;working in the educational hospitals affiliated with Tehran Medical Science University, Iran. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted as a correlative work with a sample size of&nbsp;180 nurses. A researcher-designed questionnaire was used as data gathering tool. The validity of&nbsp;which was confirmed by the experts and its reliability was ascertained using Cronbach&rsquo;s alpha&nbsp;(&alpha = 0.92). The data were analyzed in SPSS using descriptive statistics such as central indices&nbsp;and inferential statistics including Pearson correlation coefficient. Results: Mean score of the physical environment (1.96), occupational conflict (1.97), and&nbsp;ambiguity of role (2.20) were less than the average score. In addition, there was a statistically&nbsp;significant relationship between physical environment, occupational conflict, and ambiguity of&nbsp;roles on one hand and the stress experienced by the nurses on the other hand (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Given the significant relationship between physical environment, occupational&nbsp;conflict, and ambiguity of roles on one hand and the nurse&rsquo;s stress, on the other hand,&nbsp;improvement of the environmental problem and assigning tasks that are more specific can be&nbsp;greatly helpful in improvement of the work condition.