We aimed to evaluate the psychological, emotional and relational burden of nurses who provide
assistance to patients affected by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). A survey was conducted by
administering a questionnaire, the “Health Professions Stress and Coping Scale”, which proposes
some potentially stressful work situations. The questionnaire was administered to 105 nurses working
in hospitals where there is a ward for patients suffering from ALS. We used the "Non-Parametric
Combination Test", a multivariate methodology based on permutation solution, widely applicable in
various research contexts. Firstly, we investigated the areas of stress; then, the attention was focused
on the different coping strategies adopted by respondent nurses within each stress area. The analyses
were stratified according to different confounding factors, in order to control their potential effect.
The results show the presence of an average level of stress, regardless of gender and educational status.
Furthermore, there are significant differences in stress levels in subjects classified according to the
ward in which they operate and a positive correlation between higher stress levels and the number of
service years was found. In the future this study could also be of interest to nurses working in wards
with potentially stressful situations