Abstract:
Stress is part of our everyday life and affects all aspects of our activities. In
professions, where encountering hundreds of people is a routine could be very stressful. This is
the nature of the nursing profession, with its attendant effects on the physical and psychological
wellbeing of the nurse. This study set out to find the sources and effects of stress on work
performance among nurses at the University of Cape Coast Hospital, and the coping strategies
they adopt. Questionnaire was used to solicit data from the respondents. Using the multi-stage
sampling technique, fifty nine nurses were sampled for the study. Three research questions and
three hypotheses were formulated, and answered and tested respectively. Independent t-tests,
Analysis of Variance, and means were used in analyzing the data collected. No statistically
significant differences were found between the ages of nurses and the type of stress experienced,
by gender with respect to how they coping strategies toward stress, and among the various ranks
of nurses and the effect of stress on their performance. It was concluded that, nurses in the
University of Cape Coast Hospital were aware of the sources of stress among nurses, aware of
the effects of stress on their performance, and had devised their strategies for coping with
stress.It was therefore recommended that management of the Directorate of University Health
Services (UCC) organizes seminars, workshops, forum, among others on incidence of stress and
stress management strategies for the nurses. This would help the nurses to be abreast with stress
coping strategies thereby alleviating stress on them. It was also recommended that counsellors
were brought on to put in techniques that would assist nurses who are going through stressful
conditions, which are likely to affect their performance on the work
