Abstract
This study was designed to identify the relationship between the level of sense of coherence(SOC) and coping resources of nurses working in hospital. The subjects of this study were 248 nurses working at C University hospital in Seoul. The data was collected during the period from July 1. to July 14. 2001. The insruments for this study were SOC scale by Antonovsky(1987) and Coping Resources Inventory by author. The analysis of data was done by simple statistics, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient with SAS program. The results of this study were as follows:
1. Total mean SOC was 132.1/203.0 with a range 96.0 to 171.0. The mean score of this item was arranged according to three areas. The meaningfulness was 4.9, managability was 4.7, and comprehensibility was 4.2.
2. Total mean coping resources was 144.5/225.0 with a range 93.0 to 190.0. The highest mean score of item according to the area was social support 4.0 and the lowest mean score was self care coping 2.7.
3. A significant statistical difference between age, religion, spending money and SOC was found.
4. Significant statistical difference between age, educational level, spending money, working period and coping resources were found.
5. Coping resources by the level of SOC was high in the highest group of SOC(F=6.19, p=0.00). With respect to the area of coping resources, higher group of SOC was using much coping resources generally except area of leisure.
6. SOC was positively related to age(r=0.17), working periods(r=0.16), each SOC area, coping resources and all area of them except leisure.
7. The coping resources were positively related to age(r=0.21), working periods(r=0.21), SOC (r=0.49), each coping resources area, and each SOC area.
In conclusion, we confirmed that the level of SOC of the subjects was low relatively and the high level of sense of coherence was related to the high score of coping resources. Therefore, it could also contribute to select suitable nurses in their fields. In the future, it's necessary to develop strategies improving SOC.