This cross-sectional study investigated the relationship between job stress and psychosocial stress among nurses at a university hospital in Incheon, Korea.

A questionnaire survey was administered to 476 nurses, of which 320 (67.2%) questionnaires were returned and 299 (62.8%) were regarded as containing reliable data for analyses. A structured self-reported questionnaire was used to assess each respondent's sociodemographics, sleep quality, physical burden, job stress and psychosocial stress. Seven domains of occupational stress (e.g., Job demand, Insufficient job control, Interpersonal conflict, Job insecurity, Lack of reward, Organizational system and Occupational climates) according to the Korean Occupational Stress Scale (KOSS) were used and psychosocial stress was measured using Dr. Chang's PWI-SF (Psychosocial Well-being Index-Short Form). We estimated the relation of job stress to psychosocial stress using univariate and logistic regression analyses.

The logistic regression analyses indicated that the groups with high stress in ‘Insufficient job control’ (OR=2.67, 95% C.I.=1.37–5.23), ‘Interpersonal conflict’ (OR=2.32, 95% C.I.=1.19–4.51), ‘Job insecurity’ (OR=2.51, 95% C.I.=1.17–5.36), ‘Organizational system’ (OR=2.80, 95% C.I.=1.39–5.63), and ‘Lack of reward’ (OR=2.98, 95% C.I.=1.55–5.74) were more likely to experience high psychosocial stress.

Our results tend to suggest that job stress is associated with psychosocial stress. The importance of job stress should be acknowledged and stress management programs need to be instigated to minimize the psychosocial stress caused by job stress.