MENTAL WORKLOAD AND WORK STRESS IN INTENSIVE CARE NURSES AT MITRA SEJATI GENERAL HOSPITAL MEDAN

The quality of hospital services is largely determined by human resource factors, one of which is intensive nursing staff, where nurses in carrying out their profession often experience stress. One of the factors associated with work stress in intensive care nurses is mental workload. This study aims to describe mental workload and work stress, and analyze the relationship between mental workload and work stress in intensive care nurses at Mitra Sejati General Hospital Medan. This type of research is an analytic survey with a cross sectional design. This research was conducted at Mitra Sejati General Hospital Medan for 3 months. The population of this study were all nurses in the ICU and NICU-PICU room at Mitra Sejati General Hospital as many as 44 nurses. The research sample consisted of 44 nurses in the ICU and NICU- PICU room at Mitra Sejati General Hospital Medan with a sampling technique using total sampling. Data collection was carried out by interview using a questionnaire. The data analysis method used univariate analysis with frequency, and bivariate analysis with Pearson correlation test. The results of this study showed that as many as 30 people (68.2%) intensive nurses experienced high mental workload, and as many as 27 people (61.3%) intensive nurses experienced severe work stress. There is a significant relationship between nurses' mental workload and work stress in intensive nurses (p value = 0.001), showing a very strong relationship (r value = 0.794), and a positive pattern, which means that the higher the mental workload, the higher the work stress of intensive nurses. The suggestion for the management of Mitra Sejati General Hospital Medan is for the management to provide motivation and appreciation to nurses as a form of support in dealing with mental workload that can trigger work stress.