Nursing has been identified as one of the most stressful professions among healthcare work force. Work-related stress among nurses affects both individual and organizational functioning as well as the healthcare provided. However it is negatively associated with nurse’s patient care behaviors. Occupational stress is of key interest to employers because of the known adverse effects on employee performance, job satisfaction and health as a whole. In providing essential services and health care support, the average nurse’s daily workload to meet up with the clinical requirements of patients is enormous.  The aim of the study was to identify the adaptive modifiers to overcome work stress among nurses in sacred heart hospital Abeokuta, Ogun state. This study is a cross sectional descriptive study. Data were manually collected and analyzed electronically with the use of SPSS computer software version 23. The results of this study showed that the highest cause of work stress among the nurses was shortage of nurses (98.9%) while the least identified cause of work stress was death and dying. It was also identified that the major effect of work stress among nurses on the safety of patients was that it reduces the quality of nursing service (84.6%) while the least identified effect was loss of compassion for patient (66.0%). The possible modification identified was employment of more nurses (96.7%). There was an association between the educational hierarchy and problem-focused coping strategies (0.046, χ²=8.010) with a p-value <0.05. The study have shown that the highest cause of work stress among the nurses was shortage of nurses and the major effect of work stress among nurses on the safety of patients was that it reduces the quality of nursing services. The possible modification identified was employment of more nurses. It was recommended among others that Government should improve on taking in more nurses into the healthcare system, following the WHO nurse-patient ratio, so as to reduce the burden on the existing workforce in the hospital setting.

Keywords: Stress, Adaptive modifiers, Effect,