A new study by researchers at Michigan State University and Portland State University has found that when nurses feel they are provided less support than they provide others it increases the risk for personal physical injuries.
Types of support can come in many forms, including showing empathy and concern, offering advice, guidance and suggestions, or providing a helping hand.
“Beyond the physical demands of the job, social factors can pose additional risks for nurses to experience muscle and joint pain in the shoulders, arms, hands and lower back,” said Chu-Hsiang Chang, associate professor of psychology at MSU. “These types of musculoskeletal disorders often are worsened by feelings of anger.”
Chang led the study, published in the journal Work and Occupations. The study surveyed more than 400 nurses in two hospitals from 29 different units to further explore the effect psychological factors in a work environment had on physical health.
Nursing often ranks among the worst occupations in terms of work-related injuries because of the physical demands during long,12-hour shifts.
Liu-Qin Yang is an associate professor of industrial-organizational psychology at Portland State University who helped with the study.
“The imbalance occurs when nurses believe that the support they’ve received is less than what they’ve given to their co-workers,” Yang said. “This imbalance results in nurses being angry at their peers and overall work situation.”
According to Chang, hospitals use a variety of solutions to address injuries, but they focus more on physical job tasks to eliminate risk, such as using lift devices to help transfer patients from a bed to a wheelchair.
“If the norm is that everyone gets the same amount of support, then an individual nurse who experiences an imbalance might wonder why she’s being singled out,” Yang said. “She’ll feel worse and angrier.”
Yang said that in this scenario, individual nurses are less sensitive to an imbalance of support at the personal level.
“Ensuring fair treatment or distribution of workload in a social context could be a good strategy that can reduce feelings of anger and ultimately, have an indirect effect on reducing injury complaints, too,” Chang said.
