Psychological problems among nursing staff in a hospital.

Introduction: A high prevalence of psychological/ mental disorders has frequently been reported among nursing staff. However, there is a scarcity of data about 'psychological, mental and behavioural problems' among Nepalese nurses. Current study aimed to measure the prevalence of psychiatric problems among nursing staff in a tertiary care hosital.

Methods: All nursing staffs working in the hospital during one year were the subjects of this study. With the informed written consent, the responses to semi-structured proforma and the questionnaire General Health Questionnaire 28 were collected. A semi-structured proforma was used to record socio-demographic, clinical profiles and other information. The GHQ 28 was used to screen major psychiatric disorders. The GHQ 28 gives 'psychiatric caseness' to the subjects with score of 4 or more.

Results: Overwhelming majority of nursing staff in BPKIHS is female certificate level staff nurses. Majority were from urban and semi urban settings. Some had job and institute related stressors. Most common among the reported health complaints were low back pain and headache. Few staff revealed psychiatric diagnosis. Among the enrolled 337 subjects, 'psychiatric caseness' was present in 34.72%. Some departments (e.g. dialysis, eye, medical, gynecology ward) had proportionately higher 'psychiatric caseness' rates than other (e.g. ENT, psychiatry ward, emergency OT, CSSD).

Conclusions: A great proportion of nursing staff suffer from mental and behavioral problems.