A STUDY TO ASSESS THE OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH PROBLEMS AMONG STAFF NURSES IN A SELECTED HOSPITAL AT MANGALURU

Abstract

Nurses form an essential constituent of the health care system. Any kind of work-related stress when combined with daily life stress leads to determined physical and emotional outcome due to excess physical and mental demand on the human body and mind. During the fullment of their duties, nurses experience various types of work-related injuries and anxiety, which harmfully impacts their health and nursing quality. The health of nurses is a prime concern for any organization as they are the direct caregivers to the patients and their emotional and physical stability is needed for effective care for maintaining their standards in relation to patient safety. This study was planned with the objective to identify the health problem among staff nurses. The ndings of the study can be useful in creating awareness regarding occupational health problems among staff nurses. A descriptive design was used for the study. The sample consisting of 246 subjects were selected by probability simple random sampling. The tool used was demographic Performa and three-point rating scale to assess occupational health problems. The result was analysed by using descriptive statistics. Majority of the staff nurses 53.66% had mild level of health problems and 41.9% had moderate health problems and 4.5% had severe health problems. There is a signicant association between occupational health problem and selected demographic variables like gender, education qualication and working overtime The remaining variables like age (χ2=0.282), year of experience (χ2=0.226) had no signicant association with occupational health problems. The study has concluded that the majority of staff nurses are having mild level of occupational health problems and there are several factors that contribute to the health problems physical, psychological and social problems.