Ergonomics and Work Related Stress among Staff Nurses

Background: The benefits of ergonomics in nursing include increasing of the quality of nursing care, decreasing nursing shortage, and staff burnout. Aim of the study: assessing the relationship between ergonomics and work-related stress among staff nurses. Subjects and methods: The study was conducted at Menouf Fevers Hospital using a descriptive correlational design on all 140 staff nurses in the setting. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire including an ergonomics questionnaire and a work-related stress rating scale. Result: Nurses’ age was mostly 20 to less than 25 years (41.4%), with a majority of females (89.3%), with diploma degree (81.4%). Only 17.9% of the nurses considered their workplace as ergonomically adequate, and the majority had high total stress (84.3%). The areas of highest stress the disagreement among nurses (90.7%), conflict with physicians (92.9%), and lack of support from leadership (93.6%), whereas the least stressful were those of nurse capability (28.6%) and dealing with dying patient (47.9%). A significant negative correlation was found between staff nurses’ scores of adequacy of ergonomics and work related stress. In multivariate analysis, male gender and nursing qualification were negative predictors of the score of adequacy of ergonomics, while the ergonomics adequacy score was a negative predictor of the stress score. Conclusion and recommendations: The ergonomics adequacy score is a negative predictor of the stress score. The study recommends training in ergonomics, and stress management programs, with intervention studies to investigate the effectiveness of improving workplace ergonomics on nurses’ job stress and productivity.