The Relationship between Physical and Mental Health and Coping Strategies in Operating Room

Coping strategies depend to a large extent on stressors, individual experiences, severity, and characteristics of the stressors. In general, it seems that the risk of physical and mental health problems in stressful situations increases if people do not use coping mechanisms. This is an observational cross-sectional study of analytical and descriptive type performed on 192 operating room staff at 7 hospitals affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The data were collected through "Ways of Coping Questionnaire (Folkman and Lazarus)", "General Health", and "Lifestyle" questionnaires. SPSS software version 20 was then used to analyze the data. The analysis of the results revealed that the total mean scores of lifestyle and mental health were reported to be 333±42.91 and 39.24±39.24, respectively. Also, the mean total scores of the emotion-focused problem-focused style were equal to 100.16±13.90 and 104.38±14.89, respectively. There was a significant relationship between gender and work experience in the emotion-focused coping style (P<0.05). There was also a direct relationship between lifestyle and coping strategies in the operating room staff, and that the relationship was significant (P<0.05). Due to the high level of stress among the operating room staff and also the relationship between coping strategies and gender, it seems quintessential that operating room staff should take measures to avert and reduce staff stress. Furthermore, given the use of various coping strategies in stressful situations by operating room staff, it appears necessary to train the people living in that specific society to use effective coping techniques.