Abstract

Aim. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating mental health status in critical care nurses working in Coronary Care Unit (CCU), Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Emergency Department (ED) and dialysis ward in teaching hospitals of Tehran, Iran.

Background: Nursing is known as a difficult profession which needs an endless patience and tolerance with patients and their families. Furthermore, nurses must update theirs knowledge in all nursing-related topics, but it seems that it is so hard for nurses to update knowledge and at the same time, do their professional tasks such as meeting patients and family needs which occupy nearly all their time. This could run them at risk mentally and physically. Besides, it is much more possible for critical care nurses to be affected because of aggravated work-related stresses.

Method: This is a cross- sectional descriptive study. The sample included 375 critical care nurses with at least one year of nursing experience and six months of working in critical care wards. The convenience sampling method was used. Three valid and reliable questionnaires were used in this

study: "Chalder Fatigue Questionnaire", "Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale", and "Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index". Questionnaires were filled by study participants and the data were analyzed by SPSS.

Findings: The findings revealed that %73 of nurses experienced mild levels of anxiety, and %16.5 of them reported mild to moderate levels of anxiety. The remaining had either moderate to severe or severe levels of anxiety. Regarding sleep quality, %89.2 of the samples had bad sleep quality. In terms of fatigue, all participants reported moderate to severe fatig.

Conclusion: Critical care nurses in teaching hospitals of Tehran do not have satisfying mental health status. Most of them are suffering from bad sleep quality, moderate to severe fatigue, and mild or mild to moderate anxiety.