Self-care Behaviors and Influential Factors among Nurses Working in the Hospitals of Tehran

Nurses' self-care assessment and elimination of obstacles with appropriate interventions will have a great impact on their own health as well as the recipients of health services. This study was designed to evaluate self-care status among nurses in selected hospitals in Tehran, Iran.

This cross-sectional study was carried out on 310 nurses working in Tehran University of Medical Sciences hospitals. Data were collected by a questionnaire with 70 questions that was conducted to evaluate the health level in five dimensions. Data were analyzed by using the statistical tests of MANOVA and Pearson’s correlation.

The average scores of nurses' self-care in men and women were 244.1 and 245.3, respectively. The highest average score was for the supportive relationships dimension. There was a significant relationship between gender and self-care dimensions (P-value = 0.077). The average scores of self-care for nurses working in the emergency department, general department, surgical department, intensive care unit, and other sectors were 238.5, 247, 240.6, 245.6 and 251.1, respectively. There was a positive relation between supportive relationships dimension, age, and years of employment. In addition, there was a negative relation between the number of children and supportive relationships dimension (P-value < 0.05).

This study showed that self-care among nurses in the hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences was moderately high, in a good and acceptable situation. However, there were poor scores in some areas and further study of the nurses’ self-care and its promoting strategies is still required.