INVESTIGATION OF HEALTHY LIFESTYLE BEHAVIORS OF SURGICAL NURSES: A DESCRIPTIVE-CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Nihal Celikturk Doruker, Sinem Gecit, Burcak Sahin Koze

Monday, January 1, 2024

Publication year:

2024

Authors:

• Doruker Nihal Celikturk , Lecturer, Research Ass., RN, MSc, PhD , Department of Surgical Nursing, Ege University Nursing Faculty, Izmir, Turkey
• Gecit Sinem , Lecturer, Research Ass., RN, MSc, PhD, Department of Surgical Nursing, Ege University Nursing Faculty, Izmir, Turkey
• Koze Burcak Sahin , Lecturer, Research Ass., RN, MSc, PhD, Department of Surgical Nursing, Ege University Nursing Faculty, Izmir, Turkey

Keywords index:

• Surgical nursing
• nursing
• healthy lifestyle

Pages: 72-84

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14775891

Abstract:

Introduction: Nurses, who are role models, are expected to adapt to healthy lifestyle behaviors. However, surgical nurses may have difficulty in adapting to healthy lifestyle behaviors due to stressful working environments as well as professional difficulties. The aim of this research is to investigate the healthy lifestyle behaviors of surgical nurses.Methods: The population of this descriptive and cross-sectional study consisted of all nurses working in the surgical clinics in our country. The sample consisted of 111 surgical nurses who could actively use the internet and voluntarily agreed to participate in the study. The data of the study were collected via Surveey.com between March 2021 and March 2022 using the "Surgical Nurses’ Sociodemographic and Descriptive Characteristics Form" and " Form for Surgical Nurses' Characteristics for Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors" prepared by the researchers in line with the literature. Descriptive statistics were used in the analysis of the data.Results: The mean age of the nurses participating in this study is 31.78±7.48 years (min:21, max:55) 80.22% of the surgical nurses are women, 42.3% of them work in general surgery units, 48.6% as clinical nurses and 69.4% in alternating shifts during the day and night. Furthermore, 39.6% of the surgical nurses currently smoke, 67.6% have a diet low in saturated and trans-fat, 45.5% do 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week and 56.8% use appropriate methods (breathing exercises, positive thinking, etc.) to avoid or get rid of stress. Conclusion: In this study, it was found that more than half of the surgical nurses followed some recommendations for a healthy diet, nearly half of them did moderate-intensity exercise at a sufficient level, and a little more than half of them used appropriate methods to avoid or get rid of stress.