Introduction: The nursing profession is characterized as one of the most stressful professions. A significant number of international surveys prove that nurses experience anxiety that often is accompanied by intense symptoms that negatively affect their work performance and their psychological mood.
Aim: To evaluate the ways of coping in stress adopted by the nursing staff and their relationship with sociodemographic and job characteristics.
Methodology: A cross-sectional, quantitative study was conducted in seven hospitals of Peloponnese Region, Greece. The study took place between April 2013-June 2013 and 395 nurses completed the Ways of Coping questionnaire. Socio-demographic, educational and job characteristics of nurses were, also, recorded.
Results: Strategies focused on the problem were adopted to a greater extent more by postgraduate nurses, head nurses, and nurses with greater working experience. Intensive Care Unit nurses mainly adopted the strategy of denial while strategies focused on emotions were mostly adopted by females. Age and marital status did not affect significantly the choice of coping strategies.
Conclusions: According to our findings several demographic factors that affect coping in stressful situations can be investigated and such an investigation could offer useful research findings for consideration.
Keywords: clinical department effect; educational level; nurse-patient ratio; nurses’ stress; ways of coping.