Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment (Feb 2022)
Stress and Coping in Nurses Taking Care of People Living with HIV in Hunan, China: A Descriptive Qualitative Study
Abstract
Chen Pan,1 Honghong Wang,2 Minzhen Chen,3 Yu Cai,1 Peihuan Li,4 Changgen Xiao,5 Qiuping Tang,1 Deborah Koniak-Griffin6 1Department of Clinical Psychology, The Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Fundamental Nursing, Xiangya School of Nursing, Central South University, Changsha, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of AIDS, The First Hospital of Changsha, Changsha, People’s Republic of China; 4College of Resources of Environment, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Applied Psychology, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, People’s Republic of China; 6School of Nursing, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USACorrespondence: Qiuping Tang, Department of Clinical Psychology, The Third Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Changsha, People’s Republic of China, Tel +86 731 88618567, Email [email protected]/Purpose: Nurses engaged in the care of people living with HIV (PLWH) are commonly exposed to workplace stress. This study aimed to explore the stress experiences and coping strategies among nurses taking care of PLWH in China.Methods: Nurses were recruited from the AIDS department of a public, general, third-grade class-A hospital, which has the largest HIV care department in the Hunan Province of China. Thirty-three nurses working in the AIDS Department were recruited in this qualitative study. Eight nurses participated in a focus group and 25 nurses underwent in-depth individual interviews aimed at characterizing the nurse’s feelings and struggles with stress during caregiving for PLWH. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, anonymized, and imported into NVivo 8.0 software. The data were coded and subjected to thematic analysis.Results: Concerns about occupational exposure, heavy workload, mental health problems and risk behaviors of patients, and discrimination towards nurses caring for PLWH were the four main sources of stress. The negative impact of stress included problems with emotion regulation, somatic health and sleep, and work performance. Some participants also reported a positive impact of work stress on their mental health. Using personality strengths, problem-solving, help-seeking, concealing and avoiding/suppression were common coping strategies employed by nurses caring for PLWH.Conclusion: Our findings help characterize the stress experienced by nurses caring for PLWH in the Chinese cultural context, and may inform specific interventions to help manage stress and promote mental health of nurses.Keywords: HIV, nurses, stress, job burnout, coping
