Relationship of Workload Stress and Coping Among Nurses Working in the Emergency Departments of Public Sector Tertiary Care Hospitals of Peshawar

Background The demanding nature of emergency department (ED) settings exposes nurses to significant workload stress, impacting their physical and mental well-being. This study explores the relationship between workload stress and coping strategies among nurses working in the emergency departments of tertiary care hospitals in Peshawar. A cross-sectional design was employed, and data were collected from a representative sample of nurses using validated tools to measure stress levels and coping mechanisms. The findings indicate a high prevalence of workload stress among ED nurses, with factors such as long working hours, patient overload, and resource limitations contributing significantly. Coping strategies varied among nurses, with problem-focused approaches, such as time management and teamwork, being moderately effective, while emotion-focused strategies, including seeking social support and relaxation techniques, showed a mixed impact on stress reduction. Notably, maladaptive coping behaviors, such as avoidance or emotional withdrawal, were associated with higher stress levels and reduced job satisfaction. Objective The objective of the current study was to find out correlation between workload stress and coping strategies, and assess the level of stress and type of coping. Materials and Method This was a cross-sectional study conducted in 3 of the public sector tertiary care hospitals in the capital of the province Peshawar Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan. A total of 220 nursing staff was recruited through simple random sampling technique. Data was collected using an adopted questionnaire from published inventories. Results The main findings of our study demonstrated that majority of nursing staff facing stress, 75% nursing staff has positive stress with 65.9% has having severe stress reflecting a significant burden severe prevalence. Correlation of coping and stress shows a value of -0.359 while the P value is 0.000 indicating a significant relationship, while the correlation of stress with workload show a value of -0.457 with p value of .000 indicating the stress is significantly related with the workload in these hospitals. By assessing the stress with demographics, the age has F-Value of 2.67 and working organization F-value 1.845 with significant level of .000 and .002 respectively. Conclusion The findings of our study suggest that nurses working the tertiary care hospital of Peshawar are facing stress due higher workload, majority of the nurses are facing severe stress while a very small number of nurses experience low level of stress, indicating a significant prevalence. Furthermore, this study also tries to find out the relationship between stress and coping strategies among nurses the results indicates a negative relationship between stress and coping strategies reveling that the stress will be increasing with a bad coping strategies. There is a vital need for the enhancement of coping strategies among the nurses specifically those working in these hospitals.