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Work factors and psychological distress in nurses' aides: a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Nurses' aides (assistant nurses), the main providers of practical patient care in many countries, are doing both emotional and heavy physical work, and are exposed to frequent social encounters in their job. There is scarce knowledge, though, of how working conditions are related to...

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Autores principales: Eriksen, Willy, Tambs, Kristian, Knardahl, Stein
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2006
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1693921/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17132172
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-6-290
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author Eriksen, Willy
Tambs, Kristian
Knardahl, Stein
author_facet Eriksen, Willy
Tambs, Kristian
Knardahl, Stein
author_sort Eriksen, Willy
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Nurses' aides (assistant nurses), the main providers of practical patient care in many countries, are doing both emotional and heavy physical work, and are exposed to frequent social encounters in their job. There is scarce knowledge, though, of how working conditions are related to psychological distress in this occupational group. The aim of this study was to identify work factors that predict the level of psychological distress in nurses' aides. METHODS: The sample of this prospective study comprised 5076 Norwegian nurses' aides, not on leave when they completed a mailed questionnaire in 1999. Of these, 4076 (80.3 %) completed a second questionnaire 15 months later. A wide spectrum of physical, psychological, social, and organisational work factors were measured at baseline. Psychological distress (anxiety and depression) was assessed at baseline and follow-up by the SCL-5, a short version of Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25. RESULTS: In a linear regression model of the level of psychological distress at follow-up, with baseline level of psychological distress, work factors, and background factors as independent variables, work factors explained 2 % and baseline psychological distress explained 34 % of the variance. Exposures to role conflicts, exposures to threats and violence, working in apartment units for the aged, and changes in the work situation between baseline and follow-up that were reported to result in less support and encouragement were positively associated with the level of psychological distress. Working in psychiatric departments, and changes in the work situation between baseline and follow-up that gave lower work pace were negatively associated with psychological distress. CONCLUSION: The study suggests that work factors explain only a modest part of the psychological distress in nurses' aides. Exposures to role conflicts and threats and violence at work may contribute to psychological distress in nurses' aides. It is important that protective measures against violent patients are implemented, and that occupational health officers offer victims of violence appropriate support or therapy. It is also important that health service organisations focus on reducing role conflicts, and that leaders listen to and consider the views of the staff.
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spelling pubmed-16939212006-12-09 Work factors and psychological distress in nurses' aides: a prospective cohort study Eriksen, Willy Tambs, Kristian Knardahl, Stein BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Nurses' aides (assistant nurses), the main providers of practical patient care in many countries, are doing both emotional and heavy physical work, and are exposed to frequent social encounters in their job. There is scarce knowledge, though, of how working conditions are related to psychological distress in this occupational group. The aim of this study was to identify work factors that predict the level of psychological distress in nurses' aides. METHODS: The sample of this prospective study comprised 5076 Norwegian nurses' aides, not on leave when they completed a mailed questionnaire in 1999. Of these, 4076 (80.3 %) completed a second questionnaire 15 months later. A wide spectrum of physical, psychological, social, and organisational work factors were measured at baseline. Psychological distress (anxiety and depression) was assessed at baseline and follow-up by the SCL-5, a short version of Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25. RESULTS: In a linear regression model of the level of psychological distress at follow-up, with baseline level of psychological distress, work factors, and background factors as independent variables, work factors explained 2 % and baseline psychological distress explained 34 % of the variance. Exposures to role conflicts, exposures to threats and violence, working in apartment units for the aged, and changes in the work situation between baseline and follow-up that were reported to result in less support and encouragement were positively associated with the level of psychological distress. Working in psychiatric departments, and changes in the work situation between baseline and follow-up that gave lower work pace were negatively associated with psychological distress. CONCLUSION: The study suggests that work factors explain only a modest part of the psychological distress in nurses' aides. Exposures to role conflicts and threats and violence at work may contribute to psychological distress in nurses' aides. It is important that protective measures against violent patients are implemented, and that occupational health officers offer victims of violence appropriate support or therapy. It is also important that health service organisations focus on reducing role conflicts, and that leaders listen to and consider the views of the staff. BioMed Central 2006-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC1693921/ /pubmed/17132172 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-6-290 Text en Copyright © 2006 Eriksen et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Eriksen, Willy
Tambs, Kristian
Knardahl, Stein
Work factors and psychological distress in nurses' aides: a prospective cohort study
title Work factors and psychological distress in nurses' aides: a prospective cohort study
title_full Work factors and psychological distress in nurses' aides: a prospective cohort study
title_fullStr Work factors and psychological distress in nurses' aides: a prospective cohort study
title_full_unstemmed Work factors and psychological distress in nurses' aides: a prospective cohort study
title_short Work factors and psychological distress in nurses' aides: a prospective cohort study
title_sort work factors and psychological distress in nurses' aides: a prospective cohort study
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1693921/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17132172
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-6-290
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