Nurses' and Midwives' Stress of Conscience and Its Correlation With Selected Sociodemographic and Work-Related Variables.

Aim: To assess the level of stress of conscience experienced by Polish nurses and midwives and its determinants.

Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study.

Methods: The study was conducted from March 2019 to December 2020 and included convenience sampling of nurses and midwives working in hospitals in south-eastern Poland. An adapted version of the stress of the conscience questionnaire was used.

Results: A total of 476 nurses and midwives completed the survey. The stress of conscience mean value was 67.57. There were no differences in stress of conscience between nurses and midwives. There were five predictors of stress of conscience for nurses: additional job, place of residence, care for patients over 65 years of age, satisfaction with one's salary and having specialised courses, for midwives: social status, work mode and postgraduate studies.

Conclusion: With the knowledge of predictors of stress of conscience, educational institutions, policymakers and hospital managers should focus their interventions on the factors that lead to a higher level of stress of conscience. It is essential to provide psychological support, building positive relationships between colleagues and focusing on organisational conditions.

Implict: Further research in this area is therefore encouraged, along with pre- and postgraduate training in coping with challenging situations such as the death of a patient and caring for elderly patients with dementia or multiple diseases. The study identifies predictors of stress of conscience and problems that can influence their appearance. Factors that increase the stress of conscience, such as organisational conditions and caring after patients are over age 65, should receive special attention in clinical education and result in the provision of an increased level of support from supervisors. Policymakers should also direct their future actions towards the ageing population, staff shortages, the resignation from the profession by improving working conditions and reducing the stress of conscience.

Reporting method: STROBE guidelines.

Patient or public contribution: No patient or public contribution.