The certified registered nurse anesthetist: occupational responsibilities, perceived stressors, coping strategies, and work relationships.

A qualitative inquiry was launched to explore occupational stress among Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs). The purpose of this study was to examine how job-related stress manifests itself among CRNAs regarding their ability to relate to their peers. Twenty CRNAs and 15 of their coworkers from North Carolina and Tennessee participated in the study. To help confirm emerging findings, data triangulation (ie, semistructured interviews, clinical observations, and artifact data) was used to answer 4 research questions. Perceived occupational-related stressors identified by the CRNAs pertained to patient care, anesthesia work in general, job relationships, inadequate surgical preparation, the operating room environment, and physical stressors. Staying focused on patient care, the use of humor, verbalization and internalization of concerns, and adopting personal hobbies were identified as coping mechanisms to combat work-related stress. Moreover, 6 major themes surfaced after analyzing the data using the constant comparative method. The findings underscore that the shortage of registered nurses and anesthetists needs to be addressed to more effectively tackle the participants' perceived stressors. Employers can adopt concrete measures in assisting CRNAs with handling occupational stress, such as offering mandatory in-servicing and adequate time to attend in-servicing.