Psychological Capital of Nurses Working in Academic Medical Centers of Iran University of Medical Sciences

Abstract

Background & Aims: Nursing, the core and front line of the health system, is considered as one of the most challenging jobs due to problems such as lack of human resources, increasing demand in the clinical environment, constant changes in work schedule, client expectations, legal problems, and client mortality. Paying attention to influential factors including client health is important in creating a positive working environment and increasing the mental health of nurses. One of the issues raised recently is psychological capital, with four dimensions of self-efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience. Psychological capital has a positive effect on work attitude and behavior and is positively related to constructive performance. In addition, psychological capital leads to better psychological health, better adaptation to stressful conditions, and increases nurses' ability to cope with the problems. Given that nurses are always exposed to physical, mental, and emotional challenges, hospital managers should provide mechanisms to reduce potential workplace risks. Recognition of preventive factors (e.g., psychological capital) is the first step towards the growth and development of effective policies in this area. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the psychological capital of nurses working in academic medical centers of Iran University of Medical Sciences. Materials & Methods: This descriptive study was conducted to examine the psychological capital of nurses working in academic medical centers of Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2019. The study population was all nurses working in academic medical centers affiliated to Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2019 and the sample included 305 nurses with inclusion criteria (at least 1 year of clinical experience and not facing severe crises or death of loved ones during the last 6 months) from emergency departments, pediatric ward, ICU, CCU, internal ward, psychiatric ward, Operating room, obstetrics ward, surgical ward, dialysis unit, burn unit, oncology, and etc. Sampling was performed using proportional allocation procedure and samples were selected from academic medical centers of Iran University of Medical Sciences. The Psychological Capital Questionnaire devised by Luthans was used (85.2%). Most of the units (38%). The average work experience of all participants was 10.44 ± 6.96. Their average work experience in the current wards was 4.82 ± 4.41 and also the average work experience in the current hospital was 8.26 ± 6.20. The results revealed that the mean of psychological capital was 104.63 ± 15.25, and given the score range of 24-144 in the Psychological Capital Questionnaire and the mean score, it can be concluded that nurses had a high level of psychological capital. Among the components of psychological capital, the highest mean score was related to self-efficacy of 28.29 ± 4.70 and the lowest mean score was related to resilience of 24.62 ± 4.37. Also, psychological capital had a statistically significant relationship with job position (P <0.001) and chronic disease (P = 0.050). Tukey's multiple comparison showed that the mean score obtained for psychological capital of nurses was significantly lower than the one obtained for head nurses (P = 0.002) and supervisors (P = 0.029). It was also observed that the average score of psychological capital in nurses with chronic diseases was significantly lower than others. It should be noted that other personal and occupational variables had no statistically significant relationship with psychological capital. the importance of these variables and their impacts on personal, occupational, and organizational areas, including personal and psychological effects and care outcomes such as improving the quality of care and organizational outcomes, which increases the importance of paying attention to it.