Psychosocial Aspects of Professional Quality of Life of Practising Nurses' and Factors Affecting Them. Summary of the Doctoral Thesis

Abstract

Nurses who work at medical institutions need to face many distress situations daily, nurses often work more than one workload, and are constantly under emotional tension, physical and mental fatigue. Due to overwork, the risk of an injury increases, as well as emotional exhaustion and risks of professional errors may occur. Due to the negative psychosocial aspects of professional life quality, nurses` work may become less productive; employees are absent due to illness, as well as the fluctuation of staff increases. Decreasing work – related burnouts will not only positively influence the people working in the same sector, but also decrease the expenses and offer economical benefit to organizations because the work absence and illnesses, as well as the fluctuation of staff decrease. The aim of the research was to examine the professional life qualities and its psychosocial aspects and their influencing factors of practitioner nurses. In order to attain the objective of the research, a quantitative, non-experimental research was carried out by applying certain tools, such as: The scale of professional life quality, Maslach`s Burnout Inventory, Bek`s Depression Inventory The self-appraisal questionnaire about the features of the state of anxiety, the questionnaire for nurses. The participants of this study were nurses who are approved and practicing within the limits of the Republic of Latvia. The respondents were chosen by using the accessibility i.e. convenience selection method. Overall 1094 respondents were questioned and their age was from 22 to 68 years, with the average length of service - 17,12 years. The results of the research demonstrate that for the selected nurses, there exist statistically important correlations between the psychosocial aspects of professional life quality, as well as statistically important differences in the psychosocial aspects of professional life quality depending on age, work experience, professional profile. The surveyed nurses as several of the most important and influential factors of psychosocial aspects of professional life mentioned, the risk of an infection, inadequate salary and emotionally intense work with people. It needs to be noted that 93,4% of respondents considered supervisions to be necessary among practitioner nurses in Latvia. Thesis contains 44 tables, 3 pictures, 101 references. The volume of thesis is 94 pages, appendices on 10 pages.