Harmful factors at the workplace of an operating nurse

Majchrowicz Bożena, Tomaszewska Katarzyna. Harmful factors at the workplace of an operating nurse. Journal of Education, Health and Sport. 2022;12(7):286-300. eISSN 2391-8306. DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.12775/JEHS.2022.12.07.028 https://apcz.umk.pl/JEHS/article/view/JEHS.2022.12.07.028 https://zenodo.org/record/6791258 The journal has had 40 points in Ministry of Education and Science of Poland parametric evaluation. Annex to the announcement of the Minister of Education and Science of December 21, 2021. No. 32343. Has a Journal's Unique Identifier: 201159. Scientific disciplines assigned: Physical Culture Sciences (Field of Medical sciences and health sciences); Health Sciences (Field of Medical Sciences and Health Sciences). Punkty Ministerialne z 2019 - aktualny rok 40 punktów. Załącznik do komunikatu Ministra Edukacji i Nauki z dnia 21 grudnia 2021 r. Lp. 32343. Posiada Unikatowy Identyfikator Czasopisma: 201159. Przypisane dyscypliny naukowe: Nauki o kulturze fizycznej (Dziedzina nauk medycznych i nauk o zdrowiu); Nauki o zdrowiu (Dziedzina nauk medycznych i nauk o zdrowiu). © The Authors 2022; This article is published with open access at Licensee Open Journal Systems of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Poland Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author (s) and source are credited. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial license Share alike. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited. The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this paper. Received: 20.06.2022. Revised: 20.06.2022. Accepted: 02.07.2022. Harmful factors at the workplace of an operating nurse Bożena Majchrowicz, Katarzyna Tomaszewska Bożena Majchrowicz1 orcid.org/0000-0003-3202-1407 Katarzyna Tomaszewska2 orcid.org/0000-0002-2129-9107 1Department of Nursing, Institute of Social and Health Sciences, East European State University in Przemyśl, 2 Department of Nursing, Institute of Health Protection, State Higher School of Technology and Economics in Jarosław, Corresponding author: Katarzyna Tomaszewska State Higher School of Technology and Economics in Jarosław, Department of Nursing Czarnieckiego St. 16, 37-500 Jarosław, Poland e-mail: tomka8@wp.pl Source of support - none The authors declare no conflict of interest Abstract Introduction: Operating theatre is a very specific work environment. The staff employed in this organizational unit, apart from specific professional qualifications, must have the ability to make quick decisions as well as the skills to utilize highly specialized medical apparatus and equipment. Operating theatre nurses are exposed to various harmful factors, thus strain resulting from this type of work can be both mental and physical. The aim of this paper was to assess the level of knowledge of surgical nurses about harmful factors at their workstations. Material and methods: The study was performed in a group of 625 nurses working in different types of operating rooms of public hospitals in Poland. An original questionnaire survey was used to characterize the harmful factors occurring at the operating room nurse's workstation. Results: The results obtained prove that according to the nurses surveyed, the main problem associated with working in the operating theatre is constant exposure to harmful factors that have a significant impact on workload. Conclusions: There are factors identified by the staff at the operating theatre nurse's workstation that affect the level of strain both physically and mentally. Shaping the right working conditions, affecting the efficiency and safety of employees should be a priority for hospital managers and directors. Keywords: surgical nurse, work environment, risk factors, mental workload, physical workload