Obvious and Hidden Anxiety and the Related Factors in Operating Room Nurses Employed in General Hospital, Qazvin, Iran: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Health promotion and security of manpower in a society is one of the pillars to progress a society. Anxiety, is the most common psychological disorder in societies and occupations like nursing, anesthesia technicians and operation room technicians. The aim of this study was to investigate prevalence of anxiety, and its severity in Iranian nurses working in operation room. Also, we determined the most important associated factors with anxiety. METHODS: In this cross sectional study, 152 nurses working in operating room participated. The tool to gather the data was a questionnaire, that included three parts; demographic information, obvious anxiety questions and hidden anxiety questions of Spielburger. Obtained data was analysed with SPSS 16 software. RESULTS: The majority of participants were females (94.7%) with experience at work less than 10 years (84.9%). The average scores of participants in obvious and hidden anxiety were 41.9±39.4 (range 20 to 75) and 39.4±8.2 (range 20 to 70), respectively. Anxiety level was significantly higher in females than males (P=0.04). The most prevalent cause of anxiety, was contact with infected biological factors (23% of nurses). The less important cause was concern about retirement (42.8% of nurses). CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that, anxiety disorders is prevalent in Iranian nurses working in public city hospitals, which warrants immediate programs for intervention to improve working situations in work place.