KNOWLEDGE AND COPING STRATEGIES FOR OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AMONG HEALTHCARE WORKERS IN UMUAHIA, NIGERIA

Abstract

Background: Occupational stress and its coping strategies remain a significant challenge among healthcare workers globally, particularly in Nigeria, where healthcare professionals face increasing workload, poor staffing and managerial constraints that may predispose them to work-related stress.

Aim: To assess the knowledge and coping strategies for occupational stress among healthcare workers in Umuahia, Abia State, Nigeria.

Material and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional design involved a stratified random sampling technique used to select 420 healthcare workers from selected hospitals who met the inclusion criteria. The data collected were summarized using descriptive and analysed using inferential statistics of Chi-square, one-way ANOVA and paired t-test at significance level of p< 0.05.

Results: Participants showed a high level of knowledge of occupational stress (3.030.85). The major coping strategy employed by healthcare workers was positive attitude to work (3.120.86) followed by time management and prioritizing tasks (3.090.87) and identifying sources of stress in the workplace (3.060.88) The Chi-square analysis revealed a statistically significant association between knowledge of occupational stress and coping strategies (x² = 24.615, P = 0.001), while t-test analysis  showed a statistically significant association between occupational stress and demographic variables (gender: t = 3.314, p = 0.001 and marital status: t = -2.641, p = 0.009). The result of one-way ANOVA revealed a statistically significant difference in the use of coping strategies across the three hospitals (F=2, 417; = 12.98, P = 0.0001).

Conclusions: Level of knowledge of occupational stress was high and significantly influenced the coping strategies adopted by healthcare workers in Umuahia. Occupational stress was also significantly influenced by gender and marital status.