An Interregional Survey on Critical Care Nurses’ Perceptions of Psychological and Social Factors Related to their Working Environment

Sammendrag

Background: Critical Care Nurses (CCNs) provide care to acutely and critically ill patients and their families. Psychological and social factors at work are potential contributors to the health and wellbeing of employees such as critical care nurses working in intensive care units. Studies shows that poor working environments may lead to stress and impaired health for the CCNs, and that work factors may affect both level of competence and patient safety.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate critical care nurses' perceptions of psychological and social factors at work.

Method: A survey to investigate Critical Care Nurses' (CCNs') perceptions of psychological and social factors at work. All the CCNs (n = 240) working in 15 ICUs in four Norwegian hospitals were invited to answer the General Nordic Questionnaire for Psychological and Social Factors at Work (QPSNordic). Data was collected during three weeks in Spring 2016 and analysed with descriptive statistics, and parametric and non-parametric tests.

Results: In total 103 CCN completed the questionnaire (43%). The participants responded that they sometimes or rather often faced high job demands (3,09). They very often met positive challenges at work (4,41), though they rather seldom controlled decisions about their work (2,44) or control of work pace (2,32). They rather often had a perception of mastery of work (4,12).

Conclusion: The result of this study suggests that participants experienced high expectations regarding quantitative- and decision demands, but less control at work. They rather seldom or sometimes got information about the quality of the work they performed. Nevertheless, they found their work challenging in a positive way and experienced a strong sense of mastery.