Mental health status, shift work, and occupational accidents among hospital nurses in Japan.
A questionnaire survey was conducted with questions from the 12-item General Health Questionnaire, among others, targeting 4,407 nurses in 8 general hospitals in Japan, in the hope of improving the work environment of nurses and to provide data that will allow a discussion of the measures necessary for preventing medical errors, thus improving occupational health. For each type of accident, the percentage of those who had made medical errors was significantly higher for the "mentally in poor health" group than for the "mentally in good health" group (p<0.0001). The percentage of nurses in the "mentally in good health" and "mentally in poor health" groups who had experienced occupational accidents over the past 12 months (i.e., whether they were "with errors" or "without errors") was calculated for each of the following four types of medical accident: (1) drug-administration errors, (2) incorrect operation of medical equipment, (3) errors in patient identification, and (4) needlestick injuries. For each type of accident, the percentage of those who had made medical errors was significantly higher for the "mentally in poor health" group than for the "mentally in good health" group (p<0.0001). Multiple logistic regression analyses revealed significant associations between experience of medical errors in the past 12 months and being mentally in poor health, with night or irregular shift work, and age.
Suzuki
Kenshu
K
Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Nihon University, Japan.
Ohida
Takashi
T
Kaneita
Yoshitaka
Y
Yokoyama
Eise
E
Miyake
Takeo
T
Harano
Satoru
S
Yagi
Yuko
Y
Ibuka
Eiji
E
Kaneko
Akiyo
A
Tsutsui
Takako
T
Uchiyama
Makoto
M
D000062:Accidents, Occupational / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D017533:Marital Status; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D009738:Nursing Service, Hospital; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance / Q000523:psychology*