Analysis of the psychometric properties of the Nursing Stress Scale (NSS) in a Spanish sample

Introduction. Nursing Stress Scale (NSS) by Gray-Toft and Anderson (1981) specifically assesses the stress experienced by nurses. This scale has been widely used and it has been evaluated in different countries. It consists of 34 items that evaluates different stressful situations that nurses typically suffer in their job. Items are divided into 7 subscales (Death and dying patients, conflict with physicians, inadequate preparation, lack of staff support, conflict with other nurses, workload and uncertainty concerning treatment). Method. The sample consists of 180 nurses working in a public hospital answering a set of questions related to the NSS, job satisfaction and engagement. Results. After confirming a high reliability in both the general scale and the subscales, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis confirmed a seven-factor structure. Evidence of the convergent and divergent validity of the seven subscales was provided by the variable job satisfaction, inasmuch as engagement was not related to the subscales “death and dying patients” and “lack of staff support”. Discriminant validity (age) showed that the correlations were significant except for “lack of staff support” in the case of nurses under 42 years old. Discussion: Nursing is a profession that suffer stressful situations and it is important to have valid and reliable instruments that provide a good evaluation of that variable in a Spanish sample. The structure of the scale was replicated and NSS is confirmed as a good scale to evaluate stress in nurses.