CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1  Background of the Study Stress affects all of us and is very common in organisations within the health care system, particularly in those that experience rapid changes and have a poor communication network (Bilban, 2010). Besides work processes, another important element is the organisation of work, and of resources, which can have a significant impact on the quality of work, on productivity, creativity, competitiveness, nursing care outcomes, and on ensuring patients’ safety. Other important elements are a professional liability, unfavourable working conditions, workload, working in shifts (this is unique to nurses working in secondary health care in Slovenia), working at night, poor interrelationships, a lack of information, accidental cuts and stabs, etc. (Cergol, 2012). In recent times, there has been a growing belief that the experience of stress at work has unwelcome effects, both on the health and safety of workers and on the health and effectiveness of their organizations (Payne, 2001). This belief has been reflected not only in public and media interest, but also in increasing concern voiced by the trades unions and by scientific and professional organizations, including the International Labor Office. Particular concern has been expressed for the effects of stress on health-care professionals and, in particular, on nurses. He concluded that nursing is, by its very nature, a “stressful†profession. In a similar vein, Harris, (2011) observed that every day the nurse confronted with grief, stark suffering, and death as few other individuals do. A lot of nursing tasks are unrewarding and mundane. Many are, by normal standards, disgusting and distasteful. Some are simply frightening, others are often degrading. It is barely amazing that nurses, faced by such tasks and events, have been detailed to experience high intensities of stress, and their difficulties emerge to be further worsened by a range of organizational matters increasingly accepted as being active in the stress process. Stress has been grouped as a stimulus or antecedent, as a response or consequence, and as an interaction. It has been deliberated from many diverse perspectives. For instance, Smith et al. (2009) anticipated a physiological evaluation that supports considering the connection between stress and illness. Stress is a common and costing setback in today