Expectations vs. Reality - Health Behaviors of Staff Nurses in a General Hospital

Gelbart, O., Raanan, O., Rubinstein, D., Shalish, Y., & Siebzehner, M. I. (2007, May). Expectations vs. Reality - Health Behaviors of Staff Nurses in a General Hospital. (Presentation) ICN Conference, Yokohama, Japan.

Background: Health promotion is an important component of the nurse's professional role. The public views nurses as role models who should promote healthy lifestyles. However, nurses' health behaviors and the factors influencing them are not well known.

Aim: To evaluate the relationship of hospital nurses' health behaviors based on selected variables: demographic data, work place characteristics, and attitudes toward health issues.

Methodology: Data was collected by self-reported questionnaires from 760 staff nurses. The questionnaire contained two parts: demographic data and questions related to six health behaviors - smoking, nutrition, physical activity, oral hygiene, sun protection and screening tests. The data was analyzed by SAS.

Results: 86% were female and 54% had an academic degree. The average age was 37. A strong relationship was found between the level of education and the frequency of physical activity (x²=14.069, p = .007), however no relationship was found between the level of education and smoking habits (x²=20.028, p= .21).  An inverse relationship was found between the level of nurses' education and their compliance to undergo mammography (p=.001). No significant relationship was found between smoking habits and the nurses' specific department (x²=16.962, p=0.075). A weak positive relationship was found between age and sun exposure (p= .001). Oral hygiene was better in female nurses (x²=6.702, p=0.0096).

 Conclusion: The results of this study show that nurses' health behaviors are not different from those as the general population. The findings however provide interesting information that is relevant when designing interventions to enhance health promotion behaviors amongst hospital nurses.