Nurse stress in hospital and satellite haemodialysis units.

AIM

To explore nurse stress in both in-centre hospital haemodialysis and satellite haemodialysis unit in an Australian city's health service.

METHOD

Focus groups from both in-centre and satellite dialysis units were undertaken followed by questionnaires generated by the focus group data.

RESULTS

In-centre nursing staff rated the busyness of the unit as the maximum stress and stated that they felt this high level of stress on a daily basis. The most notable stressor for the staff at the satellite unit related to patient behaviour and the perceived unrealistic expectations of the patient followed by patients arriving unwell at the unit.

CONCLUSION

Nurses suffer stress on a daily basis in both in-centre and satellite dialysis units. The major stressors differ from in-centre to satellite dialysis units.