THE OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND COPING LEVEL AMONG MARRIED WORKING WOMEN IN SELECTED NURSING COLLEGES IN GUJARAT

Abstract

The word stress means pressure and in human life it represents an uneasy experience. An unpleasant psychological and physiological state caused due to some internal or external demands that go beyond our capacity. Each person has his own normal level of arousal at which he functions best. If something not habitually in the environment occurs, this level of arousal is affect. Women are socialized to be the caretaker of others. More women than men have a career outside the home and continue to try to juggle traditional responsibilities after hours. Women are struggling to achieve the “Male standard” at work while trying to maintain the perfect wife and mother standards at home. The prevalence of “Stress” in our every day vocabulary seems to suggest that we are constantly under situations in which our brain and mind are under conflict. Stressors can occur in many different life areas. Job, can be conceived as a stressor associated to the self. It increases the likelihood of being exposed to stressors in life. The research approach used was qualitative descriptive research approach and descriptive co- relational design was adopted. In this study non- probability convenient sampling technique was used to select the samples. Structure rating scale was used to assess the occupational stress and Check list was used to assess the level of coping adopted by married working women.. The stress areas covered were physical symptoms, emotional symptoms, and personal problems, working environment, IPR and institutional policies. The investigator has selected first 300 working women. The data collected showed mild, moderate and severs stress among working women. It was observed that majority of the subjects (50%) experienced moderate stress, 40% of the subjects experienced mild stress and 10% experienced severe stress. 41.7 % of married working women had good level of coping and 58.3% of married working women had moderate coping to overcome their occupational stress. The occupational stress and coping level of married working women revealed significantly negative correlation. Correlation was found out by using Karl Pearson’s formula the r value was -.114.