Pleasure and suffering in intensive care unit nursing staff

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the causal factors of pleasure and suffering in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nursing staff and to compare the occurrence of these factors at the beginning and end of the career. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted with 26 nurses and 96 nursing technicians. The previously validated Pleasure and Suffering Scale was used. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics with the SPSS 12.0 software and the Kruskal Wallis test was used to assess the presence of these factors at the beginning and end of the career. The results indicated that, for both the nurses and the nursing technicians, the factors that contribute to feelings of pleasure, professional achievement and freedom of expression, and the factors that cause suffering, professional exhaustion and lack of recognition, were encountered at critical levels. Placer y sufrimiento en trabajadores de enfermería de una Unidad de Terapia IntensivaEl objetivo del estudio fue analizar los factores causadores de placer y sufrimiento en trabajadores de enfermería que actúan en una Unidad de Terapia Intensiva (UTI) y comparar la ocurrencia de esos factores en el inicio y al final de la carrera. Se trata de un estudio descriptivo transversal, realizado con 26 enfermeros y 96 técnicos de enfermería. Se utilizó la Escala de Placer y Sufrimiento, validada previamente. Los datos fueron analizados por medio de la estadística descriptiva, con software SPSS12.0, y, para evaluar la presencia de esos factores en el inicio y al final de la carrera, se utilizó la prueba de Kruskal Wallis. Se constató que, tanto para enfermeros como para los técnicos de enfermería, los factores que contribuyen para los sentimientos de placer, realización profesional y libertad de expresión y los factores que causan sufrimiento, agotamiento profesional y falta de reconocimiento, se encuentran en niveles críticos.Descriptores: Enfermeros; Unidade de Terapia Intensiva; Salud Laboral. IntroductionThe recognition is growing that health care workers, especially those of the nursing team, experience stressful situations in the work that lead to suffering.Several studies have indicated the need to identify, in critical areas such as the ICU, the causative factors of the suffering, as well as the defensive strategies to avoid this, in order to maintain the psycho-emotional balance of the worker (1)(2)(3)(4)(5) . Care for critically ill patients requires from the nurses and nursing technicians, hereafter referred to as the nursing team, speed in decision making, a heightened sense of responsibility in the prioritization of actions, the resolution of complex problems, the continuous reorganization of the activities due to frequent interruptions, and the management of a large and variable amount of information due to the diverse interventions required (1)(2)(3)(4)(5) . Furthermore, the nursing team are almost constantly confronted with suffering and death of their fellows, and are exposed to the ambiguous feelings that are transferred to them by both the p...

Pleasure-suffering indicators of nursing work in a hemodialysis nursing service

“…With regard to the factors of suffering, participants satisfactorily evaluated professional exhaustion; this evaluation was more positive and diverges with the results reported by nurses surveyed in other studies (9)(10) .…”

“…The first factor that evaluates the experiences of pleasure (Freedom of Speech) was considered critical by the workers surveyed in this study, a result that is similar to that found with the nursing staff who worked in Intensive Care Units (ICU) of a large public hospital (9) . A survey of nurses working in the ICU of a private hospital (10) identified more positive results, since the population investigated evaluated the factor as satisfactory.…”

“…A lack of trust among colleagues was also identified in a previous study (9) , together with the lack of freedom to express opinions in the workplace are indicators that may affect experiences of pleasure in the investigated scenario.…”

“…The second factor of professional fulfillment that evaluates the experiences of pleasure at work was considered satisfactory with a positive result by the participants of this study, compared to the critical evaluation factor evidenced by ICU workers (9)(10) . This comparative is similar to the results of a study conducted in Turkey (17) , in which nurses working in dialysis centers had higher professional fulfillment compared to other hospital units, such as intensive care.…”

Nursing work organization in long-stay institutions for the elderly: relationship to pleasure and suffering at work

“…5 The interest of researchers in the sufferingpleasure relationship and the organization of nursing work is growing, especially in intensive care units, and emergency and oncology services. [6][7][8][9][10][11] However, there are few studies about this relationship in other nursing practice areas.…”