Working Conditions and Health of Nurses in Taiwan Clinics
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Wang, Li-Jie
Abstract
Objective: To understand working conditions and potential occupational hazards of nurses in clinics, and the effect of job stress, job satisfaction and perceived health status.
Method: A total of 1,953 clinics (which employed more than 3 nurses) were included for the questionnaire survey. We conducted field visits to the clinics, to evaluate the ergonomic issues of the nurses while working.
Results: A total of 2,075 (54.33% response rate) questionnaires were completed and returned by nurses, and 1,273 were eligible for final analysis. As for biological hazards, 21.05% nurses sustained at least one needlestick injury in the past 12 months, and 53.50% of the nurses had direct contact with highly contagious patients with respiratory diseases. In regard to chemical hazards, 14.69% of nurses had been exposed to disinfectants and had skin problems due to such exposure. For psychosocial hazards, clinics nurses had higher job control and higher job demand than general women workers and lower job demand than hospital nurses. As for ergonomic hazards, the prevalence of work-related musculoskeletal discomforts was high (80.28%) due to rapid movement and awkward posture at work. Nurses of dialysis room and community health centers, nurses had direct contact with highly contagious patients with respiratory syndromes, nurses who reported to have high job strain and high personal or work-related burnout, and had work-related musculoskeletal discomforts were significantly associated with self-perceived high job stress. Factors influencing nurses’ job satisfaction included high job strain, high work-related burnout and heavy lifting over 10 times per shift. In addition, for those whose job involved in heavy lifting and had work-related musculoskeletal discomforts, self-perceived poor health was also reported.
Conclusion: Needlestick injury, high job strain and musculoskeletal discomforts were major occupational hazards for clinic nurses, and were found to be highly associated with self-perceived job stress, job dissatisfaction and poor health status. We suggest that occupational safety and health guidelines for nursing routines/practices to be formulated if the best working conditions for all nurses in Taiwan are to be achieved.
Subjects
nurses
clinics
working conditions
occupational hazards
occupational safety and health
Type
thesis
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