Determining Nurses Understanding of Psychological Factors at Workplace: A Qualitative Study

There are numerous challenges and tensions in the medical and clinical departments, which might have unfavorable physical and mental consequences for the staff. In addition, health care nurses have more psychological problems, compared to other staff in industrial or public environments. This study aimed to determine nurses’ understanding of psychological factors in the workplace.

This qualitative study had a content analysis method and was conducted on 12 nurses selected by purposive sampling from hospitals affiliated to Khoy University of Medical Sciences. Data were collected by conducting individual semi-structured interviews with the participants. Notably, all interviews were recorded and transcribed, and the results were analyzed by the constant comparative method and the Graneheim and Lundman method.

In total, three categories (stressful workplace, insufficient support of managers, and individual-social factors) and nine subcategories were extracted.

Psychologically, stressful and challenging workplaces can jeopardize nurses' mental health and adverse professional outcomes. Therefore, proper measures must be taken by nursing managers to improve the psychological conditions of the workplace and help maintain the mental health of nurses and increase patient safety and care quality