Work ability promoting among nurses working at Health Science Center, Burapha University

Abstract

Objectives This study aimed to promote the work ability among nurse working by using quantitative and qualitative research methods. Method We measured work ability by a self administered questionnaire ; called the Work ability index ; WAI (Finish institute of Occupational Health , 1998).The seven index consist of 1) The comparison between the current work ability and the lifetime best 2) Work ability in relation to mental demand of job and mental resource 3) Amount of diagnostic diseases 4) The mistaken-work from illness 5) How many day off from illness in this year 6) Work ability predict toward 2 years later and 7) Mind status while working and relaxing. The subjects consisted of 72 nurses working in a 150 bed university hospital in the Eastern region of Thailand. The process of study was divided into 4 phases ; including assessment of problems , planning of programs , implementation and intervention evaluation. Re-planning and re–evaluating were done to obtain the information generated from the action implemented. T-test was used to analyze the mean difference of WAI and its items between age group. Finding The subjects’ mean age was 31.03 years (SD = 6.7) . The mean WAI of nurses increased from 39.8 (SD = 3.2) to 40.4 (SD = 3.1) after intervention. When the WAI of nurses was compared between age groups , it was found that the WAI of nurses less than thirty was lower than those of nurses older than thirty both before and after intervention. The current work ability was compared with the lifetime best , work ability in relation to mental demands of job and mental resource were significant lower in younger group than those in older group. From interview , some nurses reported that the younger nurses were temporary staff , which affected their emotional , job security confidence and career plans. The results suggestion Psychological support from nurse managers is important in improving the work ability of younger nurses.