Evaluation of musculoskeletal pain in intensive care nurses and the risk factors affecting pain

The aim of this study was to determine the musculoskeletal pain in nurses working in intensive care units (ICU) and the factors affecting pain. The study was conducted with 100 nurses working in adult ICU of Kilis State Hospital in December 2019. The data were collected using the "Visual Analog Scale (VAS)", "The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ)", whose Turkish validity and reliability was conducted by Kahraman et al., (2016), and a "questionnaire". Number and percentage distributions, Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal Wallis test, and Chi-square test were used to analyze the data. The necessary permissions were obtained for the study. It was determined that 58% of the nurses participating in the study were female, 71% had a bachelor's degree, and 51% were single. It was found that 38% of the nurses worked for 4-6 years, 49% worked in variable shifts, 71% to care 3 patients in shifts, 100% experienced musculoskeletal pain after starting to work in ICU, and most of them had musculoskeletal pain in various patient care procedures. It was found that the VAS mean score of nurses who experiencing this pain after starting to work in ICU was 6.8±1.4, 72%, 39%, 67%, 91%, and 67% of the participants had "neck", "shoulder", "back", "low back", and "foot/ankle" pain, respectively, in the last one year; the participants also experienced mostly these pains in the last 7 days and these pains affected daily functions. In addition, it was found that there was a correlation between the state of experiencing these pains when in the last 1 year and the last 7 days and some personal characteristics, caregiving activities and workplace conditions in nurses working in ICU(p<0.05). It was concluded that nurses working in ICU had musculoskeletal pain in various regions; this pain affected their daily functions and some factors were effective in their status of experiencing this pain. In this regard, it may be recommended to evaluate the pain levels of especially intensive care nurses and to improve working conditions in terms of quality of care.