Title of Research

Personality Traits, Perceived Stress, and Coping Mechanisms of Emergency Department Nurses

Presenter Information

Brittany KnippFollow

Start Date

18-8-2017 10:00 AM

End Date

18-8-2017 11:30 AM

Comments

Personality Traits, Perceived Stress, and Coping Mechanisms of Emergency Department Nurses

Student Name: Brittany Knipp

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Young-Me Lee and Dr. Elizabeth Florez

Background: Research has indicated that emergency departments are stressful environments. There is a tendency for research studies to investigate causes of stress and ways of coping, but very little research, have considered the personality traits of the nurses who thrive in this challenging environment, the work stress they perceive and the coping strategies they use.

Objective: The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to examine the relationships among personality traits, perception of workplace stress and coping mechanisms among experienced US ED nurses.

Method: A sample of 50 emergency department nurses completed an online survey utilizing the Big Five Index to measure personality traits, the Nurse Stress Index to measure perceived stressors and the Brief Cope questionnaire to measure coping mechanisms. Pearson correlations, T-tests and ANOVA were used to analyze the data.

Results: The most common personality trait was conscientiousness. Nurses who scored high in conscientiousness utilized positive coping mechanisms. Personality traits did not have a buffering effect on perceived stressors.

Conclusion: Further studies are needed with a larger sample size to accurately assess the relationships between personality traits, perceived stressors and coping mechanisms of US ED nurses.