Self-care Behaviors in Healthcare Nurses Exposed to Occupational Risks

Abstract

Introduction:

Nursing staff who are exposed to occupational risks must display appropriate self-care behaviors to preserve their health.

Objective:

Identifying self-care behaviors in nurses exposed to occupational risks.

Methods:

A quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional investigation was carried out on nurses who worked at the first care level in the municipality of Nueva Paz, Mayabeque province, during the year 2021. The universe was made up of a sample of 134 nurses, from which 86 were selected through a discretionary, intentional sampling of maximum variation. A descriptive survey was applied and Aiken's V coefficient and Cronbach's Alpha were calculated. Frequency distributions were used, as well as the non-parametric Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, to associate self-care behaviors with occupational risks and the Spearman correlation coefficient.

Results:

88.3% were exposed to psychosocial risks, 83.7% ergonomic and 80.2% biological. Self-care behaviors prevailed in the sufficient category, in the three dimensions studied, self-care responsibility, 88.3%, healthy environment 76.7% and mutual aid 72.1%. A negative and significant association was found between biological risks and responsibility for self-care (r=-0.012), psychosocial risks and mutual help (r = -0.025) and ergonomic risks and healthy environment (r=-0.018).

Conclusions:

Sufficient self-care behaviors are identified in the dimensions: responsibility for self-care, healthy environment and mutual help with statistical significance, between biological risks and responsibility for self-care, psychosocial risks, mutual help, ergonomic risks and healthy environment.