Investigating the Relationship between Time Management and Occupational Stress of Nurses Working in Critical Care Units of Teaching Hospitals in Tehran, 2022: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study

Occupational stress reduces the efficiency, productivity and quality of work and affects the body, mind, behavior and job performance of a person. Having time management skills helps to prevent and control the consequences of occupational stress. This study aimed to determine the relationship between time management and occupational stress of critical care nurses.

This is a cross sectional study that was conducted on 350 nurses working in adult critical care units (CCU and ICU) of teaching hospitals in Tehran, 2022. Nurses were selected by multistage cluster sampling. The research data collection tool included the Condensed Nurses' Occupational Stress Scale (NOSS) and time management questionnaire.

In this study, 55.7% of nurses were women, and bachelor's education was the most frequent with 75.7%. In addition, 38% were between 30 and 39 years old and 58% were married. Time management of 45.4% of nurses was at a favorable level and 9.4% was at a very favorable level. None of the nurses had unfavorable time management. The mean and standard deviation of time management (based on 0 to 100) of nurses was 56.41 ± 19.67. The mean and standard deviation of occupational stress of nurses was 51.39 ± 10.77. Time management and its dimensions had a statistically significant negative correlation with occupational stress and its dimensions, that is, with increasing time management, occupational stress decreases (r = 0.638, p<001). The results of linear regression analysis showed that time management (adjustment of responsibilities and norms, management of requests and management of emotions) can explain 51% of nurses' occupational stress (p<0.05)

According to findings, the majority of nurses had good time management, and with increasing time management, job stress decreased.