Suicidal feelings and work environment in psychiatric nursing personnel.
Suicidal feelings, attempted suicide and aspects of work environment and well-being in Swedish psychiatric nursing personnel were studied using a questionnaire. The questionnaire, containing 190 questions, was mailed to all 242 nurses and attendants working in psychiatric care at the department of psychiatry at Karolinska Hospital. Eighty-one percent (n = 197) returned the questionnaire. Suicidal feelings "last year" were lower than in the general population, but suicidal feeling and attempted suicide "earlier than last year" were much more common, and 13% reported that they had attempted suicide earlier in life. In order to study the possible association between work environment and suicide, a factor analysis was performed. Four factors were extracted and labelled: suicidality, quality of work, negative work environment and burn out/depression. The correlation between the factors suggests that negative work environment is associated with burn out/depression, which in turn is related to suicidality. No direct link was demonstrated between suicidality and work environment, and completed suicide was not investigated. The study provides some indirect evidence that a negative work environment may increase suicidal feelings.
Samuelsson
M
M
Department of Psychiatry, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
Gustavsson
J P
JP
Petterson
I L
IL
Arnetz
B
B
Asberg
M
M
D000328:Adult; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012306:Risk; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology