Assessment of anxiety level among nurses at teaching hospitals in Hawler city

Abstract

Background: Anxiety reflects the psychological and physical states required to deal with an emergency. It is also a normal way of reacting to a number of demanding situations. Anxiety disorder: refers to a group of conditions the affected person experiences persistent anxiety that they cannot dismiss and it interferes with their daily activities. Objectives: the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of anxiety among nurses at teaching hospitals in Erbil city and determine the association between socio-demographic characteristics and anxiety. Methodology: A descriptive study was conducted between (26th June -25th Augest 2011) in (4) teaching hospitals in Erbil city. A sample of (160 nurses) were selected to participate in the study, a questionnaire was applied which was composed of two parts (socio-demographic information and Zung anxiety scale). Zung self-rating anxiety scale used which includes 20 questions and each question has 4 responses that are ranked as 0 to 4 and the client selects one response that is more suitable with his emotional state. The final score was classified according to Zung score key as; 20-44 normal range, 45-59 mild to moderate anxiety level, 60-74 marked to severe anxiety level and 75-80 extreme anxiety level. SPSS (version 19) was used to analyze the data. Result: the study result revealed that (1 8.1%) of nurses had anxiety, among them 15% had mild to moderate anxiety, 3.1% had severe anxiety. There is no statistically significant relationship between anxiety among nurses and Socio-demographic data of the study sample; we also find that anxiety is more in Maternity Hospital nurses and more common in female nurses. Conclusion: There were high levels of anxiety among nurses in teaching hospitals, which necessitate attention to their work environment, especially those who work in maternity hospitals.