Stress coping among nurses in Latvia

Introduction/Backgrond: Coping strategies play a significant role in the nursés adaption to stressful work and life events. The rapid time of reforms, its dynamic pace and deficiency, and dominating social and economic problems entrust a nurse with great psychological, emotional and also physical load in her routine, which cause stress. Aim&Objectives: The aim of this paper is to study coping strategies of nurses in Latvia. Methods: The questionare used in this study based on demographic and work-related data and a stress coping scale (Lazarus and Folkmans Ways of Coping Checklist/Revised). Respondents were 200 nurses from four general hospitals in different regions of Latvia. All participants were nurses working in different departaments at the hospitals. Results: Most frequently used methods are Positive reappraisal 51.6%, Planful problem-solving 51% and Self-controlling 47.6%. Nearly each third respondent 32.9% uses Escape-Avoidance method. The data shows that the emotion focused coping are using 69% nurses, but the problem focused coping 29.5%, the differences are statistically significant. Statistical insignificant correlation was found between the ways of coping and age, work experience. Discussion/Conclusion: Nurses in Latvia use the emotion focused coping overcome types, the most common is the use of Positive reappraisal, Self-controlling and Accepting responsibility.