Levels of Occupational Stress Among the Nursing Teachers Working in Japanese Universities: Results of a Self-Reported Questionnaire Investigation that Included the NIOSH Job Stressor and Job Satisfaction Scales

Matsushita, Toshiko

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Toshiko Matsushita, PhD¹
Asako Kawaguchi, MS²
Michi Harada, MS³
Kumiko Motoya, MS⁴
Yuuko Ohsawa, MS⁴
(1)School of nursing, Faculty of Health and Medical Care, Saitama Medical University, Saitama prefecture, Japan
(2)School of nursing, Siebold University of Nagasaki, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan
(3)Department of Nursing, Kyushu University of Nursing and Social Welfare, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan
(4)School of nursing, Faculty of Health and Medical Care, Saitama Medical University, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to know that nursing teachers have different level of occupational stress/job satisfaction from clinical nurses and other working female.

Learning Objective 2: Taking these findings into consideration, the learners will be able to discuss strategy for reducing teachers' stress toward development of better nursing education.

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to examine the levels of occupational stress/job satisfaction among the nursing teachers working in Japanese universities.

Methods:The subjects comprised 173 nursing teachers working in 17 Japanese universities. The questionnaire consisted of several job stress and job satisfaction scales developed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) as well as questions on age, academic background, and experiences of harassment among others.

Results:The results showed that in comparison with other working females, the nursing teachers scored higher with regard to occupational conflict (44.6 scores), labor load (41.3 scores), variance in work lord(10.8 scores), and responsibility(11.1 scores). On the other hand, their discretionary power score (48.8 scores)was higher, and low skill underutilization score (8.0 scores)was lower. Against these backgrounds, their depression score (14.8 scores) was higher, and job satisfaction (8.2 scores) was lower. However, their self-esteem score (33.4 scores) was higher. With regard to the difference between the subjects and clinical nurses (Matsushita, 2010), the teachers’ scores were even higher than the nurses where control were concerned, and even lower as regards low skill underutilization. Although the nurses scored lower than other the working females (Haratani, 1999) with regard to self-esteem, the teachers scored higher than the other females in this category. Lastly, 1.4%of the teachers had experienced physical violence at work, 34.7% of them had experienced verbal violence, and 20.3% had experienced academic harassment.

Conclusion: It was showed that nursing teachers have different level of occupational stress/job satisfaction from clinical nurses and other working female. Taking these results into consideration, we think that it is important to examine the factors related to occupational stress among nursing teachers working in Japanese university.

See more of: Accepted WANS Posters
See more of: World Academy of Nursing Science: Oral Paper & Posters