Evaluation of physical and mental fatigue in nursing professionals working in the urgency and emergency sector

• Autor(a) principal: Pereira, Aline Oliveira Russi
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Santos, Sérgio Valverde Marques dos, Swerts, Fabiana Cristina Taubert de Freitas, Xavier, Joab Jefferson da Silva, Mendes, Aida Maria de Oliveira Cruz, Robazzi, Maria Lúcia do Carmo Cruz
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng; spa
• Título da fonte: Advances in Nursing and Health
• Texto Completo: https://ojs.uel.br/revistas/uel/index.php/anh/article/view/37678
• topic: Fatigue; Worker's health; Nursing; Emergency Nursing; Fatiga; Salud del trabajador; Enfermería; Enfermería en Emergencia; Fadiga; Saúde do trabalhador; Enfermagem; Enfermagem em Emergência

Objective: to evaluate the physical and mental fatigue of nursing professionals working in the urgency and hospital emergency sector. Method: this is a cross-sectional and quantitative study conducted in the urgency and emergency sector of a hospital located in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 2016, with 37 nursing professionals. For data collection, an instrument was used for sociodemographic and occupational assessment, and the Chalder Fatigue Scale was used to evaluate physical and mental fatigue. Results: the majority of participants were female (73%), single (54.1%), with a mean age of 30.5 years, were non-smokers and did not practice physical activity (62.2%). With regard to the professional category, the majority were nurses I (43.2%), working in this profession and in the institution for up to five years (40.57%, 59.4% respectively), and for three years in the sector (56.7%), with a work load of 8 hours/day (75.5%). Regarding physical fatigue, workers reported that they sometimes felt tired easily (32.4%), needed rest (40.5%), and felt weak (24.3%). In the case of mental fatigue, they reported that they sometimes had concentration problems (21.6%), difficulty to think clearly (18.9%), and memory problems (10.8%). In the sum of the scores of the fatigue items, 35.1% had fatigue (13), while 64.8% (24) had no physical or mental fatigue. Conclusion: the work environment of nursing professionals can cause fatigue and can have consequences on their health. It is therefore important to promote the quality of this environment and the health of those who work in it.