The mental health of nurses in acute teaching hospital settings : a cross-sectional survey

Lin Perry, Scott Lamont, Scott Brunero, Robyn Gallagher, Christine Duffield

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

69 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: Nursing is an emotionally demanding profession and deficiencies in nurses' mental wellbeing, characterised by low vitality and common mental disorders, have been linked to low productivity, absenteeism and presenteeism. Part of a larger study of nurses' health, the aim of this paper was to describe the mental health status and related characteristics of nurses working in two acute metropolitan teaching hospitals. Methods: A cross sectional survey design was used. Results: A total of 1215 surveys were distributed with a usable response rate of 382 (31.4%). Altogether 53 nurses (14%) reported a history of mental health disorders, of which n=49 (13%) listed diagnoses of anxiety and/or depression; 22 (6%) were currently taking psychoactive medication. Symptoms that could potentially indicate a mental health issue were more common, with 248 (65.1%) reporting they had experienced symptoms sometimes or often in the last 12 months. Conclusion: Nurses and their managers should strive to create workplaces where working practices promote nurses' health and wellbeing, or at least are configured to minimise deleterious effects; where both nurses and their managers are aware of the potential for negative effects on the mental health of the workforce; where cultures are such that this can be discussed openly without fear of stigma or denigration.
Original languageEnglish
Article number15
Number of pages8
JournalBMC Nursing
Volume14
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Open Access - Access Right Statement

© 2015 Perry et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated).

Keywords

  • absenteeism (labor)
  • anxiety
  • depression_mental
  • mental health
  • nurses
  • well, being

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