The Impact of Anger Expression Patterns and Social Support on the Job Stress of Clinical Nurses

Abstract

This study attempted to provide the basic data to ultimately help mediate the stress related to the nurse's job by identifying the types of anger control, social support, and job stress for clinical nurses, as well as identifying factors affecting their job stress, based on the development of a program. This is a descriptive research study to determine the patterns of clinical nurses' anger expression, social support, job stress level, and related factors that affect their job stress. The participants in this study were 142 nurses working at a university hospital in Seoul who understood and consented to the study's purpose. Data were collected using self-reported questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-test, ANOVA, Pearson coefficient, and hierarchical multiple regression. As a result of the multiple regression analysis conducted to identify the factors influencing job stress, anger expression type and social support showed 12.3% of explanatory power for job stress, and among them, anger suppression (β=.284, p<.003) was the most important influencing factor. This study is significant because it recognizes the importance of job stress for nurses and identifies the factors that influence their stress, taking into account job characteristics as well as socio-psychological characteristics. It is hoped that this will serve as a foundation for developing an intervention program to manage job stress factors in the future.