• Pounds Siu Kau Pang and Lorna Kwai Ping Suen.
• Intensive Care Unit, Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong.
• J Clin Nurs. 2008 Oct 1; 17 (20): 2681-9.

Aims And ObjectivesThe aim of the study was to compare the stressors as perceived by patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) against those of nurses on the basis of their perceptions of patients' stressors.BackgroundGetting admitted to an ICU is viewed as a stressful event by patients. However, numerous studies have indicated that nurses do not always accurately perceive the stressors of their clients. Therefore, it is important for nurses to know what seems most stressful from the patients' perspective so that appropriate nursing measures can be directed towards minimising such stressors.DesignSurvey.MethodsAs a convenience sample, 60 patients and 54 critical care nurses were recruited. The Intensive Care Unit Stressor Questionnaire (Chinese) (ICU-CSQ) was used to collect the perceptions of stressors by the patients. Nurses were also asked to rate the items in the said questionnaire according to how they believe patients would rate them.ResultsIn every comparison, nurses evaluated the items to be significantly more stressful than patients did. Overall perceived stress levels of nurses were also significantly higher than those of their patients (z = -8.78, p < 0.001).ConclusionsNurses tended to rate the items as more stressful than did the patients, perhaps over-emphasising the stressful nature of the ICU. The findings also highlight the importance of cultural beliefs on the perceived stress levels among the Chinese population.Relevance To Clinical PracticeFindings in this study have strong implications in clinical practice, especially in a critical care setting. Nurses must attempt to identify and endeavour to cope with the situations that patients listed as most stressful. Moreover, attention must be drawn towards measures aimed at relieving the stress of patients by taking into account their cultural values so that culture-specific interventions for reducing their stress can be established.

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