Community mental health nurses in Wales: self-reported stressors and coping strategies

There is evidence to suggest that community mental health nurses experience stress and burnout related to their work. Previous research has been limited by a number of methodological problems. One of the problems is that studies have tended to have small or unrepresentative samples, and many researchers have only examined mental health nurses as a subset within their research, which limits the generalizability of the findings. The All-Wales Community Mental Health Nurse (CMHN) Stress Study was set up in order to address this issue. The total population of CMHNs in Wales was surveyed (N = 614) and 301 (49%) responded. The questionnaire booklet contained a number of validated instruments to measure stress, burnout, and coping, together with a demographic questionnaire. The demographic questionnaire included three open ended-questions. These questions were asked in order in determine the CMHNs' own views of the sources of stress in the workplace, and to investigate which methods they use to cope. This paper reports the findings from the content analysis of the three questions. The results from the other measures are reported in the companion paper (Edwards et al. 2000). The most frequently cited stressors included perceived workload, excessive paperwork and administration, and a broad spectrum of client-related issues. Coping strategies that CMHNs reported using included peer support, a range of personal strategies such as relaxation, and belief in self and supervision. It appears from the findings that a range of factors such as organizational pressures and factors related to working with patients are important in determining stress levels, and that informal rather than formal support networks are the preferred methods of coping.