title: [Working conditions of community nurses].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To ensure the most efficient workplace health promotion it is essential to identify and monitor health conditions of employees and all components of the work process, as well as to recognize their cause-effect relationships. Community nurses form an occupational group with a specific type of workplace that is usually located in the patient's place of residence and thus not inspected in terms of safety and hygiene. The aim of the study was to identify working conditions of community nurses with special reference to occupational hazards.
  
  
  METHODS
  An anonymous questionnaire was used as a major tool of this survey. It contained 33 questions, concerning the work process, working conditions, work loads and arduousness, hazards and work-related complaints. The questionnaire was completed by 86 community nurses working in the Upper Silesia region.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Community nurses generally assessed their work as hard. A more thorough analysis revealed that nursing and curative care, nursing and hygienic care and rehabilitation were regarded by community nurses as hard, whereas social diagnostics and curative diagnostics were assessed as much easier tasks. Excessive physical load, forced position at work, aggressive patients, patients' aggressive family members, dangerous domestic animals, low quality of technical devices in patients' homes were reported as the greatest hazards. The obtained results reveal that working conditions of community nurses do not ensure their safety at work.
authors: Instytut Medycyny Pracy i Zdrowia Srodowiskowego, Sosnowiec Zakład Fizjologii Pracy i Ergonomii. e.kulagowska@imp.sosnowiec.pl
authors: Ewa
authors: E
authors: Kułagowska
authors: Maria
authors: M
authors: Kosińska
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006272:Health Facility Environment / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008875:Middle Aged; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology*; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016272:Occupational Health; D011044:Poland; D012931:Social Environment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult