Factors that contribute to the occurrence of work-related injuries among nurses : a systematic literature review

Abstract

Across the United States, nursing and residential care facilities ranked third among the top 10 industries with the highest rates of nonfatal injuries and illnesses in the workplace. (Perhats et al. 2012, 542.) Approaches to employee safety in most healthcare organizations have been of only modest benefit in reducing injuries. There is a need for the theoretically sound understanding of the interrelationships among individual, environmental, and organizational factors that affect safe job performance. (Mark et al. 2007, 432.) The purpose of this research is to investigate what are the most common work-related injuries among nurses in the present day and what factors contribute to the occurrence of such injuries. The aim is to publish the results of the research onto the Hoito Netti web pages in order to provide material for nurses, the nursing students and anyone else, who could be interested in preventing work-related injuries among nurses. The research question is, “What factors contribute to the occurrence of the most common work-related injuries among nurses’’. A systematic review to find peer reviewed articles that provide information needed to answer the research question was conducted. PRISMA flow diagram was used to show the search, inclusion and exclusion activities. The methodological quality and the risk of bias in chosen for the review articles have been judged according to criteria from the STROBE initiative. Latent content analysis was used to analyze the results of the research papers. Physical and psychological work-related injuries occurred frequently among nurses. The musculoskeletal injuries were found to be the most common type of injuries. Most musculoskeletal injuries were caused by patient handling activities; the manual lifting was found to be the most frequent cause of back injuries among nurses. This research also found nurses to be regularly exposed to needlestick and sharps injuries. The findings suggest that the following factors were strongly associated with both physical and psychological injuries among nurses: overtime, inadequate staffing, poor management and social support. Some other factors were found to be unique for the certain types of injuries.