Study On Nurse's Professional Self-concept, Coping Style And Health Status

Objective:To find the relationship between professional self-concept, coping style and health status and the factors what are likely to influence them, and provide the basis for those who are to further enhance the nurse's professional thinking, coping ability and mental health.Methods:We have selected nurses whose working period was over 3 years and among them we have conducted a questionnaire survey from six large clinical departments such as medical, surgical, ICU, operating room, emergency department and other departments (including rehabilitation, radiation therapy, epidemiology, dialysis room, gynecology, pediatrics, etc.), using stratified random sampling method select nurses. A total of 212 questionnaires had been sent out and 186 valid questionnaires were returned seven days later, the effective ratio was 87.7%. The questionnaire includes general information questionnaire, the nurse professional self-concept scale, Shaw plans Coping Style Questionnaire, and self-rated health measurement scale (SRHMS). We have analyzed data with SPSS 11.5 software adopting t-test, one-way ANOVA multiple factors (AVONA), correlate's Biavariate and multiple linear regression analysis.Results:1. The coping style most used by nurses is problem-solving, others in turn are help-seeking, rationalization, illusion, retreat, as well as self-reproach.2. The nurse professional self-concept and health level is low. It make no difference on demographic information in the total score of professional self-concept (P>0.05). Department, age, level of education, establishment, professional title and the marriage condition have no effect on the social health, the psychological health and general heath status (P>0.05). The head nurse's social health, mental health and general health status are higher than the common nurses. Those who have serviced as a nurse for 9～16 years have obviously higher scores in the social health, the mental health and general health status than others. The nurses in different age groups, different working period groups and different professional title groups make different scores in physiological-self, the total professional self-concept, the social health, the mental health and the total health, just like a "V" in their corresponding groups.3. The correlate analysis results indicate:Each part of the nurse's professional self-concept except the physiological self has positive correlation (P<0.01) with the social health, the mental health and the total health. Compared with the social health, the total score of the nurse's professional self-concept has a closely correlation with the mental health. The total score of the nurse's professional self-concept, the mental health, the social health and the total health score all have positive correlation with the factor of problem-solving and help-seeking (r>0, P<0.01), the professional self-concept make a negative correlation with the following factors, rationalization, illusion, and retreat(r<0, P<0.01).4. The multiple regression analysis suggests:Problem-solving, self-reproach, help-seeking, the marriage, post, nurse-nurse relationship, social self, and physiological self are the major factors that affect the total health status of nurses. Problem-solving is the most influential factor among them and it's standardized regression coefficientβequals 0.291, second are nurse-nurse relationship and social-self. Problem-solving, self-reproach, nurse-nurse relationship and physiological-self are the main factors that affect the mental health, Problem-solving is the most influential factor among them (β=0.305), second is self-reproach which is also the only factor that has a negative relation with the mental health. Problem-solving, help-seeking, nurse-nurse relationship and social self are the main factors that affect the social health, Problem-solving is the most influential factor among them (β= 0.329), second is social self.Conclusion:The nurse's professional self-concept and health status are relatively low in this study, The coping style most used by nurses in pressure conditions is problem solving, others in turn are seeking help, rationalization, illusion, retreat, as well as self-reproach, among which self-reproach do the best harm to the mental health. Problem solving and nurse-nurse relationship are both the major factors that affect the social heath, the mental health and the general health status. So mature coping style especially problem-solving and positive professional self-concept benefit nurses'health.