Determinants of subjective fatigue and pain of nurses during physical manipulation

Summary

Introduction: The aim of the paper is to describe the subjectively perceived fatigue and pain of nurses in connection with the physical manipulation of patients in nursing practice. All physical treatment of patients is considered to be physical manipulation, it is an activity involving any kind of movement and manipulation of the patient.

Material and Method: The research was carried out using a quantitative method using a non-standardized online questionnaire. Data collection took place from April to May 2020.
The research group consisted of nurses from selected hospitals in the South Bohemian Region, who worked in the standard internal medicine department, standard surgical department, internal ICU type, surgical type ICU, aftercare department and ARO. Data analysis was performed in SASD and IBM SPSS 24.0. An anonymous questionnaire of our own design was compiled to assess feelings of fatigue and pain. Items were rated on a Likert scale.

Results: The research showed that nurses reported „often“ perceived pain in 30.2% and 8.30% of nurses mentioned the perceived pain „always“ every time the patient was handled. 41.7% „often“ complained of fatigue and 14.6% of nurses „always“ complained. The research showed statistically significant correlations between the incidence of skeletal muscle pain and the average number of patients who were treated by the nurses during the shift (p < 0.01), the incidence of skeletal muscle pain and manipulation with a dependent patient (p <0.001) and further between the incidence pain and patient co-operation during physical manipulation (p <0.05). There was also a statistically significant association between physical fatigue and satisfaction with the number of nurses per shift (p < 0.001), physical fatigue with performing physical manipulation with a dependent patient daily or at each shift (p < 0.001), and physical fatigue and patient cooperation in FM (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: The results showed that the subjectively perceived pain and fatigue of nurses working in practice can be related to number of factors, but most often to the patient’s self-sufficiency. The obtained results can become the basis for further education of nurses in FM issues.

Keywords:

nursing care – nurse – Pain – Fatigue – physical manipulation