Difficulties Experienced by Psychiatric Nursing in Mental Health Hospitals and Clinics and Their Relationship to Performance Improvement

Abstract

Nurses in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia work in a significantly challenging work environment. This research explored difficulties experienced by psychiatric nursing in mental health hospitals and clinics and their relationship to performance improvement. The study followed the correlation, the descriptive design, the study sample was randomly selected (201) participants from the psychiatric hospitals in Saudi Arabia – Hafar Al –Batan. The researcher used two questionnaires to answer the study questions and achieve their objectives. The first one is the Nurses Work Functioning Questionnaire (NWFQ) it consists of fifty items self-reported survey it contains seven subscale to measure the obstacle arises in work due to common mental illness. The other questionnaire is to measure difficulties and problems it consists of nine items and the scoring system is a five-scale point. Data were analyzed using SPSS 26 version. Results showed that 56% were males while 44% were females. The large percentage according to age was 47.8% to the range age group from 20-29. Then the age group from 30–39 with total number 42 and percentage 20.2%. regarding study sample years of experience, the high percentage was from 5 years- 7 years with 57%. Also , showed that nurses faced a lot of difficulties such as depression, stress and anxiety during their work shift. These symptoms can adversely affect work performance and care quality. But in the current research in general, the results indicate that there is no statistically significant relationship between the overall degree of the mental health scale and the professional performance scale.