The World Health Organization has chosen this year to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives, and remind the world of the critical role they play in keeping the society healthy.
During these extraordinary times, caregivers face tremendous work-related stress, burnout due to workload, and long working hours due to the acute shortage of trained workforce. The job also has significant physical demands like standing for long hours, performing tasks in awkward and sustained postures, and handling patients while transferring them. This poses a high risk of musculoskeletal disorders.
Nursing care is not restricted to hospitals only. It encompasses home care nursing, industrial care nursing, community health nursing, military nursing, and other segments. However, with this expansion in the role, nurses in India are facing new challenges in their workplaces. To understand the challenges faced by nurses in detail, Godrej Interio’s research study analysed the current work environment and work pattern of the nurses in India.
“Nurses form the single largest groups of health professionals. In all care-delivery settings, they have a critical role in improving care, advance health, and provide value. We at Godrej Interio focus on creating ergonomically designed healing environments with an emphasis on efficiency, empathy and wellbeing of all the healthcare teams, including nursing staff.”
Anil Mathur, Chief Operating Officer, Godrej Interio
The study revealed that long working hours, overtime and work overload affects the physical and psychological wellbeing of the nurses. While more than 90% of nurses have MSD (musculoskeletal disorder), 61% also experienced neck pain sometimes. Most recurring pain area (51%) is leg ache, followed by knee pain (51%). Similarly, 51% nurses complained of upper and lower back issues, 41% reported to have taken leave(s) for 1-3 days whereas 7% nurses have taken leaves for 4-6 days in a span of two months to manage the pain, indicating an evident productivity loss to the organisation.
