A Study Of The Effects Of Peer Supporters' Behavior Of Nurse Managers

ObjectiveIn this study, we estimated the stress resources and stress response of nurses and the influence of peer support on stress, and then came out with effective peer behaviors of nurse managers for the relief of stress. This study can suggest a way to reduce stress and provide database and theory for further researchers to improve nurses' physical and mental health.MethodIt was a quasi-experiment design, nurses were randomly selected from Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital affiliated to Medical College of Zhejiang University respectively in March 2006 and 2007, interviewed them by quality combined quantity research menthod, and then compared nurses' stress, stress response and the evaluation of the effectiveness of peer support. In this study we adopted several questionnairs, include demography data, nurses'stress resources, stress response and peer support of nurses. The questionnairs all had good reliability and validity.The intervention which lasted for one year focused on the training of nurse managers, who were guided in groups to understand the concept and theory of the peer support and so on. The qualitative data were analyzed with SPSS11.5, and the qualitive data were analyzed word by word.Results1. Before the intervention, stress resources in descending order were workload, management atmosphere, the relationship between nurses and patients, recognition of the society and nursing knowledge.2. Physiological stress response had significant positive correlation with workload (p<0.01) and had positive correlation with the recognition of the society(p<0.05).Further regression analysis found that stress from workload and recognition of the society entered the regression equation; psychological stress response had significant positive correlation with management atmosphere and workload(p<0.01), and had positive correlation with the relationship between nurses and patients(p<0.05); regression analysis found that management atmosphere and workload entered the regression equation.3. Stress from management atmosphere had significant positive correlation with support from cooperation, act and account(p<0.01); workload had significant positive correlation with cooperation and account(p<0.01); Further regression analysis showed that cooperation entered the recognition of the society regression equation, act entered the relationship between nurses and patients regression equation, and account entered the management atmosphere and workload regression equation.4. After the intervention, total stress and stress from management atmosphere and psychological stress response decreased; nurses' sensation of total support and support from objective support, consciousness, goal, act and account increased.5. After analyzing the qualitative data, we found that they all had positive evaluation on the peer supporters' behavior of nurse managers, and they expected it would expand to all the nurses, and suggested diversify pattern.Conclusion1. After the intervention, the stress from management atmosphere and the total stress decreased significantly. To some extent, it reliefed the stress of nurses, and it prompted that we should make improvement in the intervention.2. It raised the level of the nurses' sensation of the peer support of nurse managers and to some extent, it proved the effectiveness of the support behavior.3. Nurses gave positive evaluation on the peer supporters' behavior of nurse managers, and suggested that it should be expanded and had more pattern.