Occupational Stress among Employees in a Korean General Hospital

Background: Hospital workers are one of vulnerable population because of irregular working shift, urgent situation, and harmful environment. But, investigation concerning their health status or stress level has not been examined currently.

Purpose of the Study: The purpose of the present study was to examine the level of occupational stress in hospital workers by job classification.

Methods:The subjects in this study were workers who were employed in a general university hospital. A structured questionnaire was distributed over 2,150 subjects, and eighty-three percent of questionnaire (n=1,793) were analyzed finally. Occupational stress was measured using SF-KOSS (Short Form of the Korean Occupational Stress Scale) that was developed by Chang, et al. (2005). The scale included 24 items constituted seven dimensions. Cronbach's á for this instrument was 0.81.

Results: The subject's perceived occupational stress was different according to job category. Especially the group of health workers and nurses had considerably higher level of occupational stress than other groups (F=10.724, p < .001). Among seven dimensions of occupational stress, job demand, insufficient job control, job insecurity, occupational system, lack of reward, and organizational climate varied according to job category (p < .001). Interpersonal conflict, on the other hand, was not varied by job classification.

Conclusions: This study suggests that various stress management programs focused on job characteristics were needed. In addition, occupational health nurses and hospital managers should make an effort to plan the program not only in the individual level but also in the organizational level.