Working conditions of nursing personnel at clinics in Taiwan

Objectives To understand working conditions and potential occupational hazards of nurses in clinics, and to formulate strategic plans for work environment improvement. Methods A total of 1953 clinics were recruited in questionnaire survey. An expert focus group, four hospital field visits, and ergon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Occupational and environmental medicine (London, England) England), 2011-09, Vol.68 (Suppl 1), p.A123-A123
Main Authors: Wang, Li-Jie, Shiao, Judith SC, Guo, Yue Leon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biohazards
Ergonomics
Medical personnel
Occupational exposure
Occupational health
Occupational safety
Working conditions
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Summary:Objectives To understand working conditions and potential occupational hazards of nurses in clinics, and to formulate strategic plans for work environment improvement. Methods A total of 1953 clinics were recruited in questionnaire survey. An expert focus group, four hospital field visits, and ergonomic analysis were also performed. Results A total of 2006 (52.6%) questionnaires were completed and returned and were eligible for final analysis. The mean age was 36.0 years old among respondents. As for biological hazards, 409 (20.4%) nurses sustained at least one needlestick injury in the past 12 months, and 442 (22.2%) got exposed to blood or body fluids. As for ergonomic hazards, the prevalence of musculoskeletal discomforts was high (n=1879, 93.6%) and over a half (n=984, 52.4%) of respondents believed that musculoskeletal discomforts affected their performance at work. For psychosocial hazards, nearly a half of nurses (n=995, 49.6%) reported feeling stressed at work. Most of nurses cope with stress by getting rest and sleep (n=1572, 78.4%). Nonetheless, 58.5% (n=1173) of nurses were satisfied with their jobs. Conclusions This study has identified that the clinic nurse's work environment has some room for improvement. The problem of non-report of needlestick injury and lack of proper post-exposure management, musculoskeletal discomforts, and high level of self-perceived job stress are of higher priority for improvement. We suggest that occupational safety and health guidelines for nursing routines/tasks to be formulated if the “good” working conditions for nurses are to be achieved.
ISSN:1351-0711
1470-7926
DOI:10.1136/oemed-2011-100382.409