Journal of School of Public Health and

Background and Aim: There are no occupational health data concerning the prevalence of mental disorders in Iranian hospital nurses. Such information may be a prerequisite for efficient occupational mental health interventions. The aim of this study was to determine mental health status among shift work hospital nurses.

Materials and Methods: This paper reports the findings of a cross-sectional survey that was part of a larger quasi-experimental study. We selected and evaluated 1195 nurses in 12 general hospitals in Shiraz (capital of Fars Province), using the 28-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). We used structured observations in accordance with an occupational health checklist to assess working environment during the work period.

Results: Results indicated that 28.7% of nurses were in poor mental health. Mental disease was more common among females than males (p<0.05). Prevalence rates for anxiety and somatic symptoms were 42.2% and 35.5% respectively. The prevalence of depression was 11.9% and social dysfunction, 79.5%. There was a significant relationship between shift work and anxiety as well as sleep disorders (p< 0.05). Associations were also found between marital status and depression and between gender and social dysfunction (p< 0.001).

Conclusion: Prevalence figures for mental disorders are similar to those from nationwide surveys but it seems that social dysfunction and anxiety disorders are more common in nurses compared to the general population aged 15 and over. More attention must be paid to the health of shift work nurses (especially female staff). This can take the form of shift work health education programs, occupational health counseling, and periodic examinations.

  Background and Aim: Social loafing is the phenomenon of people deliberately exerting less effort to achieve a goal when they work in a group as compared to when they work alone. People who feel they are being treated unfair in an organization would be more likely to show this phenomenon. This study investigated the social loafing among nurses and its relationship with organizational justice in Tohid Hospital in Sanandaj, Iran.

  Materials and Methods: This was a correlational descriptive-analytical study conducted in 2012. The study population was all nurses working in Tohid Hospital in Sanandaj, Iran. Data were collected using a valid questionnaire. For data analysis SPSS-20 software was used, the descriptive statistics being frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, and the Spearman, Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal-Wallis tests .

  Results : The highest organizational justice component was found to be organizational justice (0.086 ± 3.39), and the mean of social loafing was higher in comparison with organizational justice. According to the Spearman test, all organizational justice components had inverse relations with social loafing. Only distributive organizational justice was significantly related to social loafing (p<0.05).

  Conclusion: It can be concluded that the personnel are highly sensitive to distributive justice and managers need to create the feeling that the organization has a fair distribution of resources. Hospitals should try to minimize the negative effects associated with loafing by creating an environment that discourages social loafing. One way to achieve this goal is to try to impress the personnel by telling them that their functions are important , such that they feel their job is important and that the role of nurses in connection with the patients is of value and significant.