Effects of self-management education on pain, negative emotions and quality of life of nurses with low back pain

Abstract

Objective To explore the effects of pain self-management education on pain, negative emotions and quality of life of nurses with low back pain. Methods A total of 120 nurses in a class Ⅲ grade A hospital from September 2015 to March 2016 were randomly divided into the control group and the experimental group, 60 cases respectively. Nurses in the control group were given usual occupational low back pain education, while nurses in the experimental group were given individual interventions based on the stage of pain self-management guided by the stages of change model. The stage distribution of pain self-management behavior, pain, negative emotions and quality of life were evaluated and compared between the two groups before and after the intervention. Results After the intervention, the rates of action period and maintenance period in pain self-management behavior of nurses in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group (χ2=28.065, P 0.05). After the intervention, the scores of pain and negative emotions in the experimental group were lower than those in the control group, the score of quality of life was higher than that in the control group. The differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusions Pain self-management can improve the intention and capacity of nurses in the pain self-management, reduce the low back pain, ameliorate the negative emotion and promote the quality of life of nurses. Key words: Nurses; Quality of life; Negative emotion; Low back pain; Self-management