Comparison of perceived stress and self-handicapping of nurses in different shift work schedules

Nurses are among those who are stressed due to their high sensitivity job in the workplace. In addition, stress is associated with self-handicapping. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the perceived stress and self-handicapping of nurses in various work shifts. Participants of this causal-comparative study were 72 nurses (32 morning shifts and 40 evening and night shifts) in one of hospitals in Tehran city during 2016-2017 that were selected by available sampling process. Determination of sample size was performed using Cochran’s formula. One-way analysis of variance was used to assess the difference between the three shifts. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the three groups in perceived stress. The results of multivariate analysis of variance showed that there is a significant difference between the three groups of nurses (p=0.001), so that in the claimed self-handicapping, the means of alteration changed from low- to high- values respectively in the morning to night shifts and, reversely, it was from high- to low- values in behavioral self-handicapping. Perceived stress among nurses seems to be high due to the sensitivity of this work. In the context of self-handicapping, as the nurses should be decision-makers due to reduced access to specialists at nights, this feature is bolder.