Background & Aim: Addressing the psychological and social problems of employees, including stress is one of the most acute problems in today's organizations, which endangers the physical and mental health of the workforce and incurs a heavy burden on organizations. Considering the fact that the intensive care units are more special, professional and challenging, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between the nature of the professional practice environment and the perceived stress of nurses in neonatal care units.
Materials & Methods: This is a descriptive-correlational study. Sample size includes all nurses working in neonatal intensive care units of East Azerbaijan province (110 people). Data were collected through a professional practice environment questionnaire from Eriksson et al. And Cohen's perceived stress questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS software and descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: The results of the study showed that nurses evaluated the compliance of the intensive care units of the neonates with the items of the professional practice environment at the moderate level. The internal motivation for work (r=-0.20, p=0.03), performance control (r=-0.28, P=0.22), communication with doctors (r=-0.19, p=0.03) and teamwork (r=0.18, p=0.04) showed a significant negative correlation with the overall perceived stress of nurses in neonatal intensive care units.
Conclusion: Identifying the status of the professional environment and attempting to improve it is of vital importance in reducing the stress of nurses and the health of the working staff and affecting the quality of services. The overall stress of nurses has important effect on the health of the employed workforce and influences the quality of services.