Psychological resilience and nursing occupational risk among nurses

Objective To know the level of psychological resilience of nurses in a hospital and its relationships with nursing occupational risk.

Methods Totally 425 nurses in an upper first-class hospital were recruited. The information of demographic characteristics, the nursing occupational risk of each occupational hazard and the psychological resilience were surveyed with general questionnaire, the nursing occupational risk assessment questionnaire and the resilience scale. The results were analyzed with single factor analysis, correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis.

Results Finally 406 nurses (95.53%) completed this study. The nurses in ICU had the highest score (404.67 ±120.23) in nursing occupational risk assessment, while the nurses in VIP wards had the lowest (172.43 ±113.3). The first three occupational hazards were varicose veins, shift-work hazards and inadequate human resources. The resilience score of these nurses was (82.98 ±10.05), and their score of work ability was the highest while that of the social support was the lowest. There was variation of both total scores and scores of some dimensions among nurses with different demographic characteristics (P < 0.05). There was a negative correlation among nursing occupational risk score, the resilience score and the scores of all dimensions (r=-0.376——0.101, P < 0.05). Regression results showed that the married (vs. the single) had a positive effect on mental resilience (β=0.090, P < 0.05), while ergonomic, psychosocial and organizational factors had negative effects on mental resilience (β=-0.032, P < 0.05).

Conclusion The nursing occupational risk was higher and the nurses had worse resilience than the general medical staff. Nursing occupational risk was negatively related to resilience, so we should pay attention to the management and control of nurses' occupational risk, encourage nurses to get more family or social support, and improve the level of resilience.