There is a steady stream of professional literature and research within the nursing press discussing the impact of stress on nurses, nursing students and on the development of nursing (Bakker et al, 2005; Bartlett et al, 2016; Hazelhof et al, 2016). Nurse leaders, therefore, need to have a good understanding of the causes, means of prevention, signs and symptoms, and ways of dealing with stress both for themselves and the staff they manage. In this paper, we will identify some of the causes of stress in nursing, while in subsequent papers we will discuss prevention, management and signs and symptoms.
