The impact of occupational settings on the social life of the nurses who working i̇n i̇ntensive care and emergency units

Aim: The present study aims to evaluate the impact of specialized units such as intensive care unit and emergency department on the social life of the nurses. MaterialandMethod: This is a descriptive and associative study that was conducted between January and March 2020 on 83 nurses that were occupied in high-risk occupational settings that included intensive care (n=48) and emergency units (n=35) in Bingol State Hospital. The subjects that were included in the study we given a Jefferson empathy scale (includes 20 items), a somatization scale (includes 33 items), social well-being scale modified according to the health care workers (includes 32 items) to fill out. The participants were grouped according to gender (male-female), work setting (intensive care -emergency), and duration of occupation (≤5 years, 5-10 years, ≥10 years). The study groups were compared in terms of the demographic characteristics and according to the points obtained from the evaluation, scales stated above. Results: The results showed that 54.2% of the participants were female, 45.8% were happy with the occupational setting, and 78.3%stated that they would quit their job if they had a good economic status. There was a statistically significant difference in terms of the unit of occupation (p=0.046), satisfaction with the working environment (p=0.030), empathy (affectionate approach, p=0.02), total points of somatization (p=0.002) among the male and female nurses. There was a statistically significant difference in terms of marital status (p<0.001), number of children (p<0.001), work degree (p<0.001), age (p<0.001), and empathy with the patients (p=0.032) when the participants were grouped according to the duration of occupation. There was a statistically significant difference in terms of weekly working hours (p=0.028) and empathy (affection, p=0.002) among the nurses occupied in the emergency and intensive care units. Conclusion: According to the results of the present study there is a correlation between the female gender, occupation in the intensive care unit, and parameters including affection for the patient and somatization. KeyWords: Emergency Unit, Empathy, Intensive Care Unit, Nursing, Social Well-Being, Somatization