IMPACT OF STRESS ON WORK BEHAVIOUR OF F'EMALE NURSES IN GOVERI\MENT HOSPITALS

Abstract

The health care industry is very important in nowadays. Nursing is very important service for the health care system. Thus, this study intends to investigate the impact of stress on work behaviour of Female Nurses in Government Hospitals. Nurses are working in highly stressful and unhygienic environment and face a variety ofproblems in their jobs. As a woman, female nurses have to do many works in their family life, as well as they have to accomplish their work responsibilities. Because of that, female nurses are more stressed than male nurses. The study accompanies with quantitative research approach. Primary data as well as secondary data had been practiced by this study. Structured questionnaire was used as the method of data collection and questionnaire consist with two parts as personal information of the respondent and research information. Questionnaire included 20 questions with Five Point Likert scale ranging from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree. Totally, 205 Female Nurses from General Hospital, Nuwara Eliya were taken as population of this study. Census study method was used to make the sampling framework. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 amlysis. The data were measured using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis. This research has found that stress, absence behaviour and intention of quitting job is in high level and work morale is in low level among the sample as well as has good reliability. Subsequently, absence behaviour, intention of quitting job has strong positive relationship with stress and work morale has negative relationship with stress. Results showed that stress impacts on absence behavior, intention of quitting job and work morale. Additionally, stress is differing from age levels. This research contributes for directors and human resource managers of health care industry. One suggestion for further research is to investigate the impact of stress on work behaviour in a different context and to perform longitudinal research embracing a broader sample of hospitals.