Abstract

Introduction: Occupational stress and job satisfaction in nursing are issues that affect job performance and the quality of care provided by nurses. Aim: The aim of this study was to assess occupational stress, job satisfaction and job performance and how they are influenced by personal and work characteristics among hospital nurses in Ilam, Iran in 2013. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study the sample included all nurses working in teaching hospitals in Ilam. All of the participants were chosen by census sampling method. The total number of nurses according to the inclusion criteria were 208, out of which 198 nurses completed the questionnaire. Study tools included Harris's Nurse Stress Index (NSI), Spector's Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), Schwirian Six Dimension Scale of Nursing Performance (6-DSNP) and also a demographic questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient at the level of significance < 0.05. Results: The mean of occupational stress and job satisfaction of nurses was moderate and the mean job performance was at a high level. In this study, there was a significant relationship between occupational stress and job satisfaction (p=0.001) and also occupational stress and job performance (p=0.04). There was no significant relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. Conclusion: The results of this study show the importance of nurses' occupational stress on their job satisfaction and performance. In addition, the demographic variables were influential on the main variables in this study.