Abstract
The mental health of nurses working in long-term healthcare centers is affected by the care they provide to older people with major chronic diseases and comorbidity and this in turn affects the quality of that care. The aim of the study was to investigate dispositional optimism, burnout and self-reported health among nurses working in long-term healthcare centers. A descriptive, cross-sectional survey design was used. Survey questionnaires were distributed in 11 long-term health care centers (n = 156) in Catalonia (Spain). The instruments used were LOT-R (dispositional optimism), MBI (burnout) and EuroQol EQ-5D (self-reported health). Bivariate analyses and multivariate linear regression models were used. Self-reported health correlated directly with dispositional optimism and inversely with emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Better perceived health was independently associated with greater dispositional optimism and social support, lower levels of emotional exhaustion level and the absence of burnout. Dispositional optimism in nurses is associated with a greater perception of health and low levels of emotional exhaustion.
Highlights
Nurses and midwifes compose 71% of the world’s health professionals [1], and their health is of interest to the professionals themselves, health service administrators and political representatives.The role of nurses in residences for the care of patients with severe chronic diseases and mental health issues is to support and help patients in the process of recovering from illness, to guide them in care-related matters and to help them undertake daily life activities [2,3]
The aim of the present study was to investigate dispositional optimism and burnout and their relationship with the self-reported health of nurses working in long-term healthcare
It can be theorized that relationships with optimistic people are easier and that this fact has an influence over the greater social support they report [14]
Summary
The role of nurses in residences for the care of patients with severe chronic diseases and mental health issues is to support and help patients in the process of recovering from illness, to guide them in care-related matters and to help them undertake daily life activities [2,3]. Nurses who work in the care of the elderly at long-term healthcare centers have a high level of work satisfaction due to their professional autonomy and their good relations with users, families and professional colleagues [4], Despite this, it has been observed that nurses in elderly care have a sense of loneliness in their daily work for different reasons: firstly, they care for a greater number of patients than nurses working in acute-care settings, which in itself creates a stressful environment; secondly, the number of registered nurses in this setting is lower than in other areas of care and this frequently results. Public Health 2020, 17, 4918; doi:10.3390/ijerph17144918 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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