Working on Stress Associated with Neck and Shoulder Pain among ICU Nursing Personnel

Introduction
ICU nursing staffs has to expose to high working load than other unit in hospital. Work related neck and shoulder pain are common health problems among general population and workers. Several studies have been conducted to specify the physical factors. Some studies showed that low psychosocial job demands and lack of social support was related to neck/shoulder pain. The aim of this research was to determine the prevalence and associated factors of neck and shoulder pain among nursing personnel.

Methods
This study was a cross-sectional study using self-administered questionnaires to investigate the prevalence rate and work-related factor neck and shoulder pain in ICU staffs nurse in Ramathibodi Hospital, Thailand 2009. The questionnaires consisted of Dutch Musculoskeletal Questionnaires (DMQ) and Job Content Questionnaires (JCQ). The binary logistic regression was used for predictor of neck and shoulder pain among nursing staffs.

Results
Results:
The results indicated that the prevalence rate was 69.4%, followed by low back (57.50%) and upper back (57%).The results showed the relationship between factors and neck and shoulder pain. After using a binary logistic regression model such as more than 8 hours work per day (p=0.049) and low decision latitude (p=0.047) were significantly associated with neck and shoulder pain.

Discussion
Their physical workload, psychosocial and individual factors must be taken into account to improve the working conditions. The results of their work practices should be considered in guidelines for risk reduction strategies.