Sjuksköterskans upplevelse och hantering av stress på en akutmottagning
SUMMARY The purpose of this study was to explore how nurses in the emergency department experience and cope with stress in their workplace. The study had a qualitative, descriptive approach and was based on nine individual, semi-structured interviews. They were then processed using content analysis. The content analysis of interviews resulted in two categories, "the nurse's experience of stress," "the nurses coping with stress." Together, the categories highlighted how nurses experienced stress during and after their shifts. The study showed clearly that all nurses experienced and coped with stress in their daily work activities..The authors noticed that stressful time for the nurses were repeated at each session and were similar in character. The organization does not seem to address the core of the problems leading to increased work load for the nurses. Sometime the nurses had to deal with the prolonged stress outside their working hours. Most of them felt to be skilled at dealing with acutestress.The working model in the emergency department has serious shortcomings in how the nurses should be able to complete their tasks more efficiently. This has consequences that the nurse easily ends up in a stressful situation that reduces her effective working capacity. For some time now a more favourable working model has been put in place, which will shorten, working hours.Keywords: Stress, nurse, management, emergency department, physiological / psychological effects of stress.