Evaluation of Happiness and its Related Factors among Nurses in Educational Hospitals of Yazd Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, 2016

The mental health of nurses, as providers of care, has a significant impact on the quality of care. Happiness has a close relationship with many health components. Considering the importance of mental health in nurses, this study was conducted to investigate happiness among nurses in educational hospitals of Yazd Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences.

The present descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out on 210 nurses using stratified sampling method (Proportionate to the number of nurses in each hospital). Data were collected using a 2-part questionnaire including background information and Oxford Happiness Standard Questionnaire with 29 questions and a score range of 0-87. Data analysis was performed by SPSS/16 using Chi-square test and ANOVA.

The mean age of nurses was 31.8 ± 6.09 years. In terms of happiness levels, the majority of nurses (57.6%) had moderate levels of happiness and the average score of happiness was 37.54 ± 11.88. A significant relationship was found between happiness with physical activity (P= 0.022), employment status (P=0.025), ward (P = 0.038), work shift at night (P=0.111), satisfaction of health (P <0.0001), love of the job (P = 0.001), and satisfaction of workplace conditions (P<0.0001).

The findings showed that the level of happiness was moderate in the majority of nurses. Therefore, the researchers recommend planning and implementing appropriate interventions to increase the happiness of nurses and improve the quality of nursing care.