Separation anxiety studied in hospitalised patients

Kásádi, M.

Objective: to study the prevalence of separation anxiety in the hospital setting; to identify factors that might impact on the development and severity of anxiety.

Sample and methods: a questionnaire was distributed to 50 randomly selected patients at the Dermatology Service of a Hungarian county hospital. Anxiety was measured using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale.

Findings: 90% of the respondents had no or only slight fears from separation and 10% showed signes of separation anxiety. Persons suffering from separation anxiety lived in very close family relationship in extended families of two-three generations. The most frequent complaints included difficulties with falling asleep and repeated awakenings during nights. Females complained more frequently of anxiety symptoms, as did males.

Conclusions: Separation anxiety does develop in hospitalised patients, but frequently no effort whatsoever is made to ease the problem. This might be related to a lack of information, which prevents providers from identifying and effectively addressing the problem. It is proposed hat greater emphasis should be put on treating anxiety in the course of care provision. This, in turn, requires familiarity with the appropriate diagnostic tools and their evaluation.

---

Fatigue in patients with malignancies

Zatkó, J.

Providing care for patients with chronic fatigue is a complex task for the nurse. There is a need provide continuous nursing care and psychological counselling. The well-prepared and qualified nurse will help the patient understand and come to terms with fatigue, and reintegrate into daily life after adopting some life-style changes.

---

Back-pain related to patient lifting

Szabó, P.

Objective: to assess the incidence of back pain among nurses due to a lack of patient lifting devices and to identify the causes leading to diseases due to physical stress.

Sample and methods: a self-administered questionnaire developed by the author was used; 1,000 questionnaires were distributed in 13 major healthcare facilities across Hungary.

Results: back pain, related complaints and diseases were found to be highly frequent among the nurses surveyed. Although many nurses were familiar with the principles of correct patient lifting, there was scarcely any patient lifting device available in the healthcare facilities. In addition to subjective complaints, significant working time losses were found, with only few of the nurses surveyed seeing a physician and considering their disease a work-related one.

Conclusions, recommendations: The survey has revealed a serious situation in the field of physical stress of nurses. The study has identified non-compliance with the effective legislation in terms of the availability of patient lifting devices. There is a need to include knowledge of how to lift patients and how to operate lifting devices into nursing education. Prevention requires that occupational health services be strengthened and made more accessible for healthcare workers.