Study Addresses Nurse Health Problems
Provided by: Canadian PressWritten by: JOHN WARD Dec. 11, 2006
OTTAWA (CP) - Everyone has heard stories of overworked, stressed-out nurses, but a new Statistics Canada study has put flesh on the anecdotal bones, confirming many of the complaints.
In fact, the study suggests that the job is making nurses sick. The study surveyed nearly 19,000 nurses between October 2005 and January 2006, including registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and registered psychiatric nurses.
It found that about 10 per cent were injured on the job in the previous year, whether they were stuck by needles or even physically assaulted by patients.
About 37 per cent reported they had experienced pain serious enough to prevent them from carrying out their normal daily activities in the year before the survey and three-quarters of them blamed job factors.
The survey links work stress, low autonomy and lack of respect to health problems among nurses. It says job strain was strongly related to fair or poor physical and mental health.
"For example, 17 per cent of nurses who perceived high job strain reported 20 or more sick days in the past year, compared with 12 per cent of nurses who perceived less job strain."
That's no surprise to Andrea Baumann, director of the Nursing Health Services Research Centre at McMaster University.
"We've seen along with firemen and policemen a sort of high job strain because of the intensity of the work," she said. "The intensity of the work is increasing because of the shortened stays, sicker patients and fewer staff.
The survey found that many of the country's 314,900 nurses were expected to work regular overtime. Half of them put in an average of four hours a week in unpaid overtime. As well, many nurses have more than one job.
The study, conducted in concert with Health Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, also found that nurses were more likely to report high stress levels at work than people in the general work force.
The researchers defined work stress as occurring when job responsibilities outpaced a worker's ability to decide how to perform the tasks required of them.
"It's too few nurses for too many patients," said Lisa Little, senior nursing consultant with the Canadian Nursing Association.
"I think 67 per cent say there's too much work for one person, they can't provide the quality of care that they want, there's not enough time to do what's expected.
"All of those kinds of things, I think, are all feeding into what we're seeing in terms of their health."
The statistics agency said nearly a third (31 per cent) of female nurses were classified as having high job strain while the figure for all employed women was 26 per cent.
Nurses were also more likely to report depression than people in the general work force.
OTTAWA (CP) - Everyone has heard stories of overworked, stressed-out nurses, but a new Statistics Canada study has put flesh on the anecdotal bones, confirming many of the complaints.
In fact, the study suggests that the job is making nurses sick. The study surveyed nearly 19,000 nurses between October 2005 and January 2006, including registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and registered psychiatric nurses.
It found that about 10 per cent were injured on the job in the previous year, whether they were stuck by needles or even physically assaulted by patients.
About 37 per cent reported they had experienced pain serious enough to prevent them from carrying out their normal daily activities in the year before the survey and three-quarters of them blamed job factors.
The survey links work stress, low autonomy and lack of respect to health problems among nurses. It says job strain was strongly related to fair or poor physical and mental health.
"For example, 17 per cent of nurses who perceived high job strain reported 20 or more sick days in the past year, compared with 12 per cent of nurses who perceived less job strain."
That's no surprise to Andrea Baumann, director of the Nursing Health Services Research Centre at McMaster University.
"We've seen along with firemen and policemen a sort of high job strain because of the intensity of the work," she said. "The intensity of the work is increasing because of the shortened stays, sicker patients and fewer staff.
The survey found that many of the country's 314,900 nurses were expected to work regular overtime. Half of them put in an average of four hours a week in unpaid overtime. As well, many nurses have more than one job.
The study, conducted in concert with Health Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, also found that nurses were more likely to report high stress levels at work than people in the general work force.
The researchers defined work stress as occurring when job responsibilities outpaced a worker's ability to decide how to perform the tasks required of them.
"It's too few nurses for too many patients," said Lisa Little, senior nursing consultant with the Canadian Nursing Association.
"I think 67 per cent say there's too much work for one person, they can't provide the quality of care that they want, there's not enough time to do what's expected.
"All of those kinds of things, I think, are all feeding into what we're seeing in terms of their health."
The statistics agency said nearly a third (31 per cent) of female nurses were classified as having high job strain while the figure for all employed women was 26 per cent.
Nurses were also more likely to report depression than people in the general work force.
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