Stress assessment by anaesthesiologists and nurses working in paediatric intensive care units

Paediatric intensive care units (PICU) play a special role in the therapy of critically ill children. The physicians (anaesthesiologists) and nurses are at a particular risk of job-related stress because continuous work stress can lead to psychological and physical disturbances. The aim of the study was to assess the stress level among the anaesthesiologists and nurses in the PICU. The anaesthesiologists and nurses (104), recruited from five university hospital centres in Poland, participated in the study between 2005-2008. The participants were asked how they estimate the stress level at work, both in general and specific in relation to working in the PICU. Both tested groups estimated the stressfulness of their job in the PICU as high or very high. The most stressful factors for doctors were: decision on limitation of intensive therapy, giving information to parents about a child's death and stressful attitude towards challenging clinical cases. For nurses, the stressful-factors included witnessing the parents' reaction to critical state of their child and/or child's death. The anaesthesiologists and nurses working in the PICU are very stressed and in their opinion work in intensive unit is much more stressful than other jobs. Even though the stress job-related factors are well known the methods to cope with them seem to be insufficient. Based on our research, we argue that the medical team in the PICU should develop and realize competences of stress management or psychological support.