Work-related stress in outpatient nursing professionals: a phenomenological approach for future research

Abstract

The objective of this study was to understand work-related stress among nursing staff in the Latin American context, based on the postulates of Giorgi's phenomenology. This approach establishes a phenomenological framework that involves defining an intersubjective object of study, rather than the classic medical-positivist view that sees stress solely as a pathology. To this end, semi-structured instruments and field observations were applied among nursing staff in the outpatient area of a Surgical Clinical Center during 2023. The concepts and indicators were processed using the aforementioned psychological-phenomenological criteria. Four main categories were identified: symptoms of work-related stress, generating factors, resulting effects, and management strategies, subdivided into twenty subcategories and twelve units of meaning. The findings demonstrate that work-related stress is far from being a problem associated with isolated variables such as "work overload" and corresponds to a problem of the meaning of work and the self-definition of the individual. It is shown that public health management, and its hierarchical directives, involve processes of alienation from the physical, rational, and emotional potential of the staff, thereby weakening the individual's sense of self.