[Analyzing the mental health status and its impact factors among female nurses in China]

Objective: To analyze the mental health status and its impact factors among nurses, finding ways to improve the mental health of nurses. Methods: A total of 13 425 female healthcare workers aged from 18 to 65 were selected as study objects. The survey was conducted with unified design questionnaire. The survey included the basic situation of the individuals and SCL-90 questionnaire. Comparing the female doctors, the mental health status and its impact factors of nurses were analyzed. Results: The income, age, education and occupation, which include shift work, heavy work load and overtime work are different between nurses and doctors. The main mental health problems of nurses were obsessive-compulsive symptoms, depressive symptoms and somatization. The results of univariate analysis indicated that shift work, overtime work, and heavy work load affected the positive rate of each factor. The results of multivariate analysis showed that occupation, shift work, overtime work, and heavy work load have significant adverse effects on the positive rate of the total score in female healthcare workers (P<0.01) . The positive rate of each dimension of SCL-90 in nurses is significantly higher than that of doctors. Conclusion: The mental health problems of nurses are significantly higher than doctors. The main reasons are low occupational level and adverse workstyles which include shift work, heavy workload and so on. Health administration and hospital management departments should pay much more attention to the mental health of nurses, improving their mental health through a variety of ways.