Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #112193

Ran Zhao, MD and Xiaoyi Fang, PhD. Development Psychology Institute, Beijing Normal University, 19 xinjiekouwai St., Beijing, 100875, China, 86-10-5880-8232, zhaoran1777@yahoo.com.cn

Background: In China, there are 1,29 million nurses. They are the main resource of the medical service systems. They suffer heavier work stress and mental stress. And there are rare researches about Chinese nurses' stress characteristic, coping strategy and the relationship with the mental healthy.

Methods:This was a cross-section study, recruited 639 nurses from local hospitals in China in 2002.Nurse Stressor Inventory, Type-A Behavior Inventory, Ways of Coping Inventory were employed. Principal factor analysis, ANOVA and Structure Equation Model were employed for data analysis.

Results: Chinese nurses experienced five main sources of job stress. Senior nurse, charge nurse and those with higher education experienced more job stress. Type-A nurses felt more stress and often took use of the coping of escaping than Type-B. Nurses' stress, type-A personality and negative coping negatively predicted mental health.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that this group had high job stress. Appropriate interventions to improve mental health need to consider factors of Chinese nurses' job characteristics and coping strategy, type-A personality.

At the end of this session, audience will learn to: 1. Understand the current characteristic of Chinese nurses' job stress. 2. Examine the association of stress, coping and mental health. 3. Understand the importance of intervention of job stress that tailor to characteristic of Chinese nurses.

Learning Objectives: