Comparison of Rumination and Impulsivity among Nurses Working in Psychiatric and Non-psychiatric Settings in Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences

Nursing is viewed as a profession with a high prevalence of occupational, physical, and psychological problems. This study aimed to determine and compare subjective rumination and impulsivity among nurses working in psychiatric and non-psychiatric wards in Zare and Imam Hospitals, Sari.

This is a descriptive-analytic study done on 279 nurses of Sari, Zare and Imam Hospitals’ psychiatric (186) and non-psychiatric (93) wards, selected by simple random sampling. Research tools included demographic-occupational questionnaires, the short version of Ruminative Response Scale (RRS), and Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and Minnesota job satisfaction questionnaire (MSQ). Data were analyzed by SPSS-24 software through Chi-square, t-test, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient with significance.

The mean score of cognitive, motor, non-planning impulsivity of nurses working in psychiatric wards’ nurses were 13.98±2.15, 11.61±2.67 and 15.50±1.88; and at non-psychiatric wards’ those variables were 14.75±2.50, 12.84±3.14, 16.21±2.49 (p=0.01). Moreover, the mean score of rumination of psychiatric and non-psychiatric wards’ nurses were (24.81±4.47) and (25.85±4.68), respectively, being statistically significant (p=0.05).

According to the obtained results, rumination and all dimensions of impulsivity were higher than average among nursing staff in non-psychiatric departments and lower than average in psychiatric department. According to the results, based on the presence of rumination and impulsivity among the nursing staff of different departments of the hospital, interventions can be designed to control rumination and impulsivity and provide safe and quality services to patients.