Abstract
Background: Middle managers have not received enough attention within the healthcare field, and little is known how stressful factors in their work environment coupled with a lack of adequate sleep are related to musculoskeletal pain. The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between stressful factors in the work environment, lack of adequate sleep, and pain/discomfort in three body areas. Methods: Questionnaire was sent electronically to all female nursing unit managers (NUM) in Iceland through the outcome-survey system. The response rate was 80.9%. Results: NUM who had high pain/discomfort in the neck area also had very high pain/discomfort in the shoulder area and pain in the lower back. The results also revealed positive a medium-strong correlation between mental and physical exhaustion at the end of the workday and musculoskeletal pain. Stress in daily work, mental strain at work, and being under time-pressures had hardly any correlation with pain/discomfort in the three body parts. Adequate sleep had a significant negative correlation with all stressful factors in the work environment and all three body parts under review. Conclusion: The results will hopefully lead to a better consideration of stressful factors in the work environment, sleep, and musculoskeletal pain in middle managers.
Highlights
Middle managers are in demanding roles and often find themselves in difficult positions
The results revealed no statistical correlation between pain in the neck and neck area and experiencing stress in daily work (r = 0.13) and being under a lot of time pressure (r = 0.14), Still, there was a negative a medium-strong correlation with adequate sleep (r = −0.31), indicating that stress in daily work and being under time pressure does not explain pain/discomfort in the neck and neck area
The results showed that nursing unit managers (NUM) who had high pain/discomfort in the neck/neck area had very high pain/discomfort in the shoulder/shoulder area and pain in the lower back
Summary
Middle managers are in demanding roles and often find themselves in difficult positions. The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between stressful factors in the work environment, lack of adequate sleep, Int. J. Middle managers have not received enough attention within the healthcare field, and little is known how stressful factors in their work environment coupled with a lack of adequate sleep are related to musculoskeletal pain. The aim of this study was to examine the correlation between stressful factors in the work environment, lack of adequate sleep, and pain/discomfort in three body areas. Adequate sleep had a significant negative correlation with all stressful factors in the work environment and all three body parts under review. Conclusion: The results will hopefully lead to a better consideration of stressful factors in the work environment, sleep, and musculoskeletal pain in middle managers
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