This study aimed to compare schizophrenic patients’ and nurses’ perceptions of the stress felt by patients during hospitalization, and to present baseline data on patient-centered nursing.

The subjects were 66 schizophrenic patients and 80 nurses in 11 psychiatric wards in the Chungcheong and Gwangju area. Data were collected using self-report questionnaires and analyzed by descriptive statistics.

The results showed that the level of the patients’ perceived stress was between mild and moderate level (1.56±.56), whereas the level of the nurses’ estimation of patients’ stress (2.05±.42) was higher than patients’ perception. The level of the nurses’ perception of the patients’ stress was significantly higher than that of the patients’ perceived stress in terms of a life with no future, a sense of alienation from family, infringement of basic needs, and the inconvenience of collective life, and very wide variations were found. And both the patients and the nurses reported unfair human rights violation as the greatest stressor.

Psychiatric nurses should provide patients with individualized stress management strategies that focus on stressors and the level of stress perceived by each patient.