Impacts of Personality Traits and Work Shift Patterns on Psychological Distress among Nurses in Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the impacts of personality traits and work shift patterns on psychological distress among Nurses in Federal Medical Centre, Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. Three alternate hypotheses were postulated and tested at a 0.05 level of significance. Three hundred and sixty participants were selected through purposive random sampling technique from Nurses in Federal Medical Centre Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. The participants’ ages ranged from 24 to 45 years with a mean age of 33.87 and standard deviation age of 5.56. The participants were administered with Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-Adult) and Symptom Distress Checklist (SCL -90). Nurses were categorized based on their primary work shift: morning, afternoon, or night shifts. Cross Sectional Survey Design was employed and 2-Way Analysis of Variance was used to analyze the data collected. Results revealed that there was no significant impact of personality traits on psychological distress. There was a significant impact of work shift pattern on psychological distress. Finally, no interaction impact of personality traits and work shift patterns on psychological distress was identified. The study recommends among others, that Health care institutions should offer training and education programs to raise awareness about impact of work shift on psychological distress and provide nurses with coping strategies for managing stress in demanding work environments.