The Relationship Between Musculoskeletal Discomfort and Professional Quality of Life Among Nurses

Harsh working conditions lead nurses to experience musculoskeletal discomfort and impair their professional quality of life.

The aim was to determine musculoskeletal discomfort of nurses and to compare its relationship with their professional quality of life in terms of their socio-demographic characteristics.

It is a cross-sectional, descriptive, and correlative study.

Different units of a public hospital.

333 nurses working at different units.

The data were collected from 333 nurses working at different units in a public hospital between July and December 2018. The data collection tools include an 8-question participant information form, Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire, and Professional Quality of Life Scale.

The nurses suffered mostly from lower back pain (90.4%) and their pain slightly interfered with their works (49.8%). There was a weak positive but significant correlation between musculoskeletal discomfort and professional quality of life of the nurses (r = 0.215; p < .001). The nurses, who were younger, were male, were working in executive positions, had less institutional and professional experience, and had higher mean score of musculoskeletal discomfort (p < .05).

The professional quality of life of the nurses experiencing musculoskeletal discomfort in their bodies was negatively affected. For example, as the musculoskeletal disorders increase, the levels of burnout and compassion fatigue, which constitute the quality of life, also increase.