The Relationship between Nurses Fatigue and their Work Engagement in School Settings at Alexandria

Abstract

Context: School health nurses have a pivotal role in the provision of health care services to students. Therefore, they are experiencing more fatigue and stress with the increasing numbers of students who enroll in school with either acute or chronic health conditions where they require early detection and management during the school day. Aim: Assess the relationship between school health nurses' fatigue and their work engagement in school settings in Alexandria. Subjects: 200 school health nurses who represent available school nurses enrolled in all educational zones of Alexandria Methods: A descriptive correlational research design was adopted to carry out this study. Research question: What is the relationship between school health nurses fatigue and their work engagement in school settings at Alexandria?. Tools : Tool I: which includes two parts: Part One: The Socio-demographic characteristics of school health nurses and Part Two: Professional Quality of Life Scale Version 5 (ProQOL5). Tool II: The 9-Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Results: The results of this study showed that more than three quarters (78.0%) of the studied nurses had moderate vigor toward their work and the highest percent of them had moderate dedication and absorption (84.0 & 91.0%) respectively. Also, there were statistically significant differences between the school health nurses’ fatigue and mean scores of work engagement. Conclusion: The study concluded that school health nurses at more risk of being victims of the long-term stress they are suffering overwhelming needs of ill students and their families, which in turn lead to compassion fatigue and burnout. So, studying the relationships between school health nurses' fatigue and their work engagement plays an important role in health promotion of students and all school health personnel. school health nurses' fatigue should be incorporated in nursing theory and education to improve their levels of work engagement and decrease secondary traumatic stress.