The study of the relationship between mental workload of nurses and maintaining human dignity of patients

Abstract

Background: Nurses in the health care system are the largest group, and many care outcomes are the result of their activities. Due to the long-term contact of nurses with patients, maintaining the patient's human dignity depends on the type of action and reactions of the nurse to the components of human dignity. One of the factors that affect the behavior and performance of nurses in the workplace and can affect their efficiency and productivity is mental workload. Accordingly, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the relationship between nurses' mental workload and maintaining human dignity of patients in the hospitals of Kerman University of Medical Sciences’ Iran in 2021. Method: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in 2021 on 322 nurses of Kerman University of Medical Sciences were selected using random sampling method. The data was collected using NASA TLX and DICSN questionnaires and analyzed with SPSS software version 15. A significance level of 0.05 was considered. Results: Based on the results, 26.4% of participants were male and 73.6% were female. 50.6% of nurses were single and 46.9% were married. The mean of mental workload was 71.05±15.48, which is high. The mean of maintaining human dignity of the patients is 140.09±18.74, that is relatively desirable level. A significant statistical correlation was observed between nurses’ mental workload and maintaining patients' human dignity (r=0.30, p<0.001). There was a significant relationship between mental workload with gender (p=0.04) and nurses' marital status (p=0.02); and between maintaining patients' dignity and employment status (p=0.02). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that, given the relationship between mental workload and human dignity, it may be possible to ask nurses to implement incentive schemes to despite their high mental work experience, try to provide nursing care services respectfully and while maintaining the human dignity of patients, Hold or increase.