Perceived Stress and Burnout among Nursing Personnel Working in a Tertiary Care Hospital: a Cross-sectional Study in Eastern India

Purpose: Perceived stress and burnout are by-products of physiological and psychological burdens among nursing personnel. Physical and psychological stress is a perennial issue among the health care providers, especially among nurses in the resource constrained settings. With this endeavor, we have tried to examine the burden of perceived stress and burnout among the nurses in tertiary care settings. Along with the burden, we have also looked at a few new set of potential determinants for the aforementioned outcomes. Methodology: An institution-based cross-sectional study was carried out to assess the level of perceived stress, burnout amongst the nursing personnel working at various levels, in a tertiary care Hospital, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. The total enumeration sampling technique was used along with pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. After accounting for the pre-defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, we arrived at a sample size of 401 to be interviewed for the study. Cohen perceived stress scale and Maslach’s Burnout Inventory, were used for assessing the perceived stress and burnout, respectively. Findings: The study revealed that stress [Low: 9.2%, Moderate: 87.3% and High: 3.5%], emotional exhaustion [Low: 20.4%, Moderate: 45.1% and High: 34.4%] and depersonalization [Low: 10%, Moderate: 26.7% and High: 63.3%] is prevalent among nurses in private tertiary care. They also had low perceived personal accomplishment [Low: 63.6%, Moderate: 22.9% and High: 13.3%]. 8 or more hours of duty per day [beta coefficient 1.36, 95% confidence interval 0.42 – 2.31] and 8 or more numbers of night duties per month [beta coefficient 1.76, 95% confidence interval 0.52 – 3.00] emerged as significant risk factors for stress when compared to 6 hours of duties per day and no night duties per month. Similarly, higher night duties [up to 7: beta coefficient 1.76, 95% confidence interval 0.52 – 3.00 and 8 or more: beta coefficient 1.6, 95% confidence interval 0.42 – 2.77] emerged as a significant risk factor for emotional exhaustion when compared to no night duties. Practical Implications: Our study findings provide an estimation of stress and burnout burden prevalence in tertiary care and associated factors that will be helpful in advocating policy changes and targeted interventions. The level of stress and burnout among nurses is increasing in tertiary care, therefore, policies should be formulated to identify and take appropriate preventive measures. The coping mechanisms should be promoted for health care providers, especially for the nursing personnel. This paper can pave a path to examine the relationship of life aspirations and their effect on burnout, which will be a valuable addition to the existing body of knowledge in the domain of burnout Originality: Having used cross-sectional study design and the robust method of linear regression analysis technique, our study found some novel results that will add valuable knowledge in furthering the understanding of burnout among the nurses and in general.

Effectiveness of Body Mechanics Training (BMT) on the Management of Low Back Pain, Functional Disability and Physical Fatigue among Women Working in Health Profession: A Study Protocol

Background: The most prevalent musculoskeletal problem among healthcare workers is low back pain (LBP). It's a type of pain between the costal margins and the inferior gluteal folds, and a painful restriction of movement frequently accompanies it. In high-risk health care professionals such as nurses, the prevalence of LBP is higher (64.07%). Clients with chronic LBP had a high level of functional impairment and weariness. Objectives: 1.To evaluate the effectiveness of Body Mechanics Training (BMT) on managing low back pain, functional disability, and physical fatigue among women working in the health profession on the 7th day and at the first, third, and sixth-month interval. 2.To identify the inter-relationship between LBP, functional disability, and physical fatigue. Study Design: It is a two-arm trial, interventional hospital-based Study. Place and Duration of The Study: This Study will be conducted in selected hospitals of Wardha district, Maharashtra, India. The duration of the Study will be six months. Methodology: The participants will be 330 women in the nursing profession with nonspecific chronic LBP aged 21 to 50. With purposive sampling technique, participants will be allocated to 1 of 2 treatment groups: 1) Experimental Group will receive BMT including McKenzie and Yoga exercises, through a licensed physiotherapist and certified yoga trainer. 2) Control Group will receive written instructions regarding body mechanics in a booklet form and follow exercises at home. The experimental group will receive 24 sessions of 60 minutes (6 sessions per week over the first four weeks or a month) and then a supervised session once a week for the next five months. The outcome will be obtained during intervention on the 7th day and after completion at 1, 3, and 6 months. After therapy, the primary outcome will be pain intensity as determined by the Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS). The secondary outcome, i.e. pain intensity, functional disability (measured with Modified Oswestry LBP Disability Questionnaire), and physical fatigue (measured with Chalder Fatigue Scale), will be measured after treatment. Expected Results: LBP, functional disability, and physical fatigue will be reduced. Limitations: Only Nursing personnel will be included in this Study. Conclusion: This Study's results will contribute to developing BM Training Program for Nursing personnel to manage work-related nonspecific LBP.

Nursing personnel training: a pilot study on attitude change, through a workshop on ethics and humanities

Nursing has emerged as one of the main professions with a humanistic sense specialized in health care. The accent on personal development favored by training in humanities allows for questioning whether a training specifically focused on the workplace abilities enhances personal fulfilment at work. A pilot workshop on Ethics and Humanities at Work was offered in tertiary hospital to assess the influence of ethics and humanities in attitude toward work. Nineteen nurses completed the workshop; attitude towards change and attitude towards teamwork increased significantly. In this pilot study we found that the workshop influenced attitude towards change at work and teamwork. Since an attitude is made up of the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components, the change in one of these has the capacity to modify part of the others.

Control in the work of the head of nursing service

The aim of the study is to improve the quality of medical care in the maternity hospital SBHI SR «City Hospital No. 2 named after V. V. Banykin» by organizing by the heads of nursing services a more effective system of monitoring the executive discipline of nursing personnel. Results. All heads of nursing services of a medical organization are interested in organizing a more effective control system, which is inextricably linked with a higher level of quality of medical care, which, in turn, leads to a more efficient and successful functioning of a medical organization. Conclusion. The study showed that in order to improve the quality of medical care, it is necessary to organize a more effective system for monitoring the executive discipline of nursing personnel, taking into account the elimination of the identified errors.

Reducing Work-related Stress in Nursing Personnel: Applying an Intervention

Objective: To compare the levels of ex-post-facto stress between nursing personnel who participated in an educational intervention with nursing personnel on work duties, within the hospital work environment. Materials and method: This was an observational and cross-sectional study. The final sample was composed of 30 nursing personnel, with 15 of them composing the group exposed to the intervention and 15 being selected by simple random sampling to compose the unexposed group. The intervention consisted of a program focused on the employees, structured in four sessions, applied in a course format twice a week, and lasted two months. The Student’s t-test for independent samples and the Mann-Whitney U-test were used to compare the groups. Results: Using the Mann-Whitney U-test, the stress levels could be compared between the groups, and a statistical difference in stress levels was observed between the control group (3.34 ± 0.71 a.u.) and the intervention group (2.52 ± 0.59 a.u.) (p = 0.002; d = 1.26). Conclusions: Comparing the general stress levels between the groups, it was found that the intervention significantly decreased the stress levels in the participants; it was also possible to identify the mental stressors faced by the participants using the Scale of Stress in Professionals.

Low back pain prevalence and associated factors in nurses from Brazilian primary health units

BACKGROUND: Primary health unit (PHU) nursing work is different when compared to hospital environment. Although low back pain (LBP) literature presents studies conducted in hospital nursing personnel, there is a lack of studies in PHU nurses. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to measure the prevalence of LBP in PHU nursing personnel in the city of Pelotas, Brazil. METHODS: Sociodemographic (age, gender, number of children, skin color, income and marital status), occupational (PHU type, formal education, professional experience, weekly workload, extra work activity, workload perception), nutritional (BMI), health (self-perceived health, smoking, sleep quality and minor psychiatric disorders, PHU physical structure perception) and behavioral (leisure-time physical activity) characteristics were assessed. LBP was defined as pain or discomfort between the last rib and gluteal fold. Poisson regression was used to evaluate the relationship among LBP and covariates. RESULTS: LBP prevalence was 65.2%. Chronic (12 weeks) and acute (7 days) LBP prevalence were 22.4%and 53.4%, respectively. LBP was associated with obesity (PR 1.39 95%CI 1.01–1.92) and poor self-perceived health (PR 2.77 95%CI 1.32–5.80). CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence of LBP in PHU nursing personnel is high and similar to hospital nurses. Individual characteristics such as body mass and health perception were associated with LBP.

Spirituality in Daily Healthcare Provided in Brazil: Meanings and Practices of the Nursing Team

Objective: to understand the meanings and practices related to spirituality experienced by Nursing teams in the daily care provided in Oncology. Methods: qualitative research, guided by the theory of Holistic Nursing by Myra Levine, conducted with members of the Nursing team at an Oncology hospital in Brazil. Data collection was carried out in 2018, through an interview guided by a semi-structured script. Data analysis was performed using Lawrence Bardin's Content Analysis technique. Results: two categories emerged: the first brought to light the meanings attributed to spirituality by the Nursing team and the second category presented the practices of spiritual care by Nursing personnel in their daily routine in Oncology, highlighting that professionals address spirituality with patients in different ways. Conclusion: the approach to spirituality in Oncology care and in the professional training of Nursing personnel is essential, as a way of providing holistic and humanized care, thus strengthening the psycho-spiritual dimension in daily care.

Conflicts in nurses’ work

The problem of conflicts among nursing personnel of medical organizations is quite relevant. Medical workers, like members of other professional groups, are not free from cases of conflict, but due to a number of circumstances, such as excessive load intensity, work that requires a lot of emotional return, low social protection, on the contrary, they have them.