Work-Related Fatigue and the Effective Factors in the Iranian Nurses

Background & Aims of the Study: Nursing is one of the highly stressful jobs. Nurses have toprovide health service, in many cases, to the patients with incurable disease. Working in suchenvironment induces severe and permanent mental pressures, which in long-run can createfatigue and negative effects on performance of the nurses. The main objective of the presentstudy is to survey effects of occupational fatigue and the pertinent factors on the nurses workingin Kermanshah hospitals.Materials & Methods: The study is a cross -sectional study conducted on 112 nurses inKermanshah-based hospitals in 2015. Data gathering was performed using job information anddemographics questionnaire and Sweden occupational fatigue inventory (SOFI). The collecteddata was analyzed in SPSS-16.Results: The results showed that 67.9% of the nurses suffered from low and moderate fatigue,23.2% suffered from high fatigue, and 8.9% suffered from very high fatigue. The highest meanscores of fatigue symptoms in the nurses were obtained by burnout, inability, drowsiness,yawning, and disinterest. The results showed significant relationship between occupationalfatigue and its aspects. Fatigue in men was higher than that of women and it was more evident inmarried participants comparing with unmarried participants. In addition, nurses with masters’degree, those in evening and overnight shifts, nurses with a second job, and the participants whoexpressed dissatisfaction with their job and their colleagues showed more occupational fatigue.Conclusions: The results showed that work-related fatigue was moderate to high in theparticipants. Therefore, it is recommended that nurses can consider some items to managefatigue like reducing overworking, sleeping enough, using good nutrition and enough rest toimprove the work system.

Keywords:

Hospital , Fatigue , Nurses Role , Occupational Health , Kermanshah , Iran