Depressive Symptoms among Nurses in Al Maamoura Psychiatric Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt

• Published in: Journal of High Institute of Public Health Vol. 54; no. 1; pp. 1 - 9
• Main Authors: El-Sayed, Omnia A. El-Sayed A., Attia, Medhat S., Shata, Zeinab N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Alexandria University 25-06-2024
• Subjects: depressive symptoms; determinants; egypt; prevalence; psychiatric hospitals; psychiatric nurses
• DOI: 10.21608/jhiph.2024.361949
• EISSN: 2357-061X
• ISSN: 2357-061X; 2357-0601

Background: Depression among psychiatric nurses is associated with adverse effects on their physical and mental health, as well as on their productivity and the quality of care provided for their patients. Objective(s): To estimate the prevalence of depressive symptoms and to identify some of their determinants among nurses in a mental hospital in Alexandria, Egypt. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 215 randomly selected psychiatric nurses in Al-Maamoura Psychiatric Hospital in Alexandria. The data was collected using a predesigned structured self-administered questionnaire along with the Arabic Version of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Results: The age of the sampled nurses ranged from 22 to 59 years, and most of them were females (88.8%). More than one-third (37.2%) of the nurses had depressive symptoms of variable severity, ranging from mild (28.4%) to severe (1.8%) symptoms. “Moderate/ Severe” depressive symptoms were estimated to be 8.8% among psychiatric nurses. Females with “Moderate/ Severe” depressive symptoms were more than the double of the males (9.4% Vs 4.2% respectively). Logistic regression analysis revealed two significant predictors of moderate/ severe depressive symptoms among psychiatric nurses: few social networks (OR=9.257, 95% CI=1.991-43.051), and job title “nurse” (OR=0.107, 95% CI=0.012-0.924). Conclusion: Depressive symptoms of varying severity represent a mental health challenge among psychiatric nurses. Indicated interventions addressing social support networks, psychological well- being, and occupational factors would promote the mental health resilience of psychiatric nurses and decrease the negative impact of depressive symptoms among them.