Labour stress in nursing

Based on evidence found during the empirical study we can affirm that the nursing profession is affected by work stress. Objective: Evaluate stress and engagement levels among nurses in health units in Portugal and Spain and describe the stress-generating factors among the surveyed nurses. Methods: A comparative study on a transversal level. Sample of 867 nurses (504 Portuguese, 363 Spanish), female 83.6 % (78.6 % in Portugal, 90.6 % in Spain) and average age of 37. 77.2 % of the Portuguese and 39.4 % of the Spanish nurses work on average 40 hours per week. 60.6 % and 57.7 % of the Spanish and Portuguese respectively have exercised their profession for 10 years. Pamela Gray-Toft’s Nurs- ing Stress Scale (1981) [1] and Schaufeli & Bakker’s Utrecht Work En- gagement Scale (2003) [2] were used. Results: Globally, Portuguese nurses experience higher stress levels although the difference with Spanish nurses is not statistically significant. There are statistically significant differences between Portugal and Spain in “Lack of help from colleagues” and also in the psychological domain in general. Concerning Engagement, there are statistically significant differences in the three dimensions, the p-value of the Student t-test was under 5 %, highlighting that Spanish nurses are more vigorous, dedicated and absorbed by their work. Conclusions: Portuguese nurses perceive more psychological stress and mention having less help from colleagues. Spanish nurses feel more vigorous, dedicated and absorbed by their work.

Time-trends in infant mortality rates in the southern Europe

Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has been considered an important health indicator in monitoring quality of health care. Objectives: To examine trends in IMR in Southern Europe (SE) over the last two decades. Methods: Number of live births and infant deaths reported for SE (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) between 1990 and 2013 were abstracted from World Health Organization Database. Annual IMR per 1,000 live births was computed for each country and for SE as a whole. Joinpoint regression models were used to estimate average annual percent change (AAPC) in IMR and respective 95% Conidence Interval (95% CI) and to identify points in time when signiicant changes in trend occurred (joinpoints). Results: Between 1990 and 2013, IMR signiicantly decreased from 9.2 to 3.4 in SE and the highest decrease was observed from 1992 to 1998 (AAPC = -6.1%; 95%CI: -6.5%; -5.8%). Signiicant decline in IMR was observed in all countries but the pattern was different across countries. IMR varied across countries between 11.5 and 8.3 and between 3.1 and 3.8 in 2013; highest IMR were observed in Portugal for 1990 and in Greece for 2013. Most notable decreases in IMR were observed from 1990 to 1995 in Portugal (AAPC = -8.4% 95%CI: -8.8; -8.1), from 1993 to 1997 in Italy (AAPC = -6.6% 95%CI: -7.8; -5.5) from 1998 to 2006 in Greece (AAPC = -6.8% 95%CI: -7.0; -6.5), and from 1993 to 1996 in Spain (AAPC = -7.3% 95%CI: -9.0; -5.6). Decreases in IMR were signiicant during all time period in Italy and Greece but in Portugal and Spain IMR became unchangeable after 2010-2011. Conclusions: Decrease in IMR in countries of SE suggests steadily improvement in the quality of health care. However differences in the pattern of decrease across countries during the last years deserve particular attention.