A hospital stress rating scale

Abstract

When 261 medical and surgical patients at a community hospital were asked to rank order 49 events related to the experience of hospitalization from most to least stressful, results indicated the subjects were capable and willing to order the events. Moreover, they showed a high degree of consensus as to how the events should be ordered. The rank order of these events provides a tool that can be used to quantify the measurement of psychosocial stress experienced by hospital patients.