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ABSTRACT
Objective: The purpose of this research was to determine the frequency and severity of low back pain and influencing factors in nurses working in intensive care units.
Methods: This research was conducted as a cross-sectional study with 114 nurses working in the intensive care units in the province of Gaziantep, Turkey. Study data were collected using a questionnaire form and visual analogue scale.
Results: It was found that 84.2% of the nurses experienced low back pain, and 66.7% of the nurses evaluated this pain as "a pain with moderate severity". It was determined that nurses who had not received any education on low back pain, who remained standing for long periods of time, who performed interventions that required bending forward, who lifted and repositioned patients, and who did not use any aiding equipment during interventions, experienced more pain and had higher average pain scores. In addition, average pain scores were higher among nurses with master's and doctorate degrees, and those working in internal medicine and pediatric intensive care units and working in shifts.
Conclusion: It was observed that many of the nurses working in intensive care units experienced low back pain, and especially those working in internal medicine and pediatric intensive care units and working in shifts had higher average pain scores.
KEY WORDS: Low back pain, Nurse, Influencing factors, Intensive care units.
INTRODUCTION
Nurses are among the professionals with the highest incidence rates of work-related low back problems.1 Because nursing interventions include physical, personal and ergonomic risk factors for low back pain.2 3 Due to the low back pain caused by these risk factors, every year thousands of nurses in the world work with less efficiency, receive medical reports and/or retire early. Especially the nurses working in intensive care units experience low back pain more frequently due to reasons such as providing patient care by bending forward for long durations, over-forcing/over-loading some body parts while repositioning patients, and sparing more time for patient care. In addition, over-workload in intensive care units, and frequent repetition of body movements and functions such as reaching up-forward, holding, clasping-hugging, lifting and turning prepare the ground for the emergence of this problem.4
Despite this fact, there is very limited number of studies on the assessment of...