STAFF STRESS IN HEAD-INJURY REHABILITATION

Recent research has suggested that staff working with head-injured (HI ) patients experience higher levels of psychopathology than those work ing with non-HI patients, mirroring findings obtained with relatives o f HI subjects. The present study examined this issue further while con trolling for the influence of a range of occupational and extraneous, non-occupational factors which moderate the experience of staff stress . The results indicated that nurses involved in the rehabilitation of HI patients did not differ significantly from those working with non-H I patients on measures of overall stress, job satisfaction or psychopa thology. The implications of these findings are discussed, with partic ular relevance to the potentially important protective effect of staff -patient ratios.