Symptoms of depression and intervening factors among nurses of emergency hospital services

Abstract

Objective: To verify if nurses from the emergency hospital services had depressive symptoms, identifying intervening factors and analyzing perception about the psychic suffering and its influence on care provided. Methods: Cross-sectional study, conducted with nurses of emergency hospital services. The research instrument was a semi-structured questionnaire with sociodemographic variables and psychometric scales for the assessment of depression. For statistics, the Fisher exact test was used. Results: A total of 23 nurses participated, of which 91.3% showed symptoms of depression. Factors for illness were related to work conditions such as overload, devaluation, lack of human and material resources. The nurses neither acknowledged themselves as sick, nor being influenced on care provided. The results were converging for the scales of observation. All nurses were advised and sent to specialized care. Conclusion: The majority of nurses working in emergency services reported depression linked to working conditions. Most of them did not realize their own psychic suffering.