Quality of professional life among nurses: the Pro-QOL questionnaire

Abstract

Introduction. The technical-scientific progress and the quality of the medical services have played an integral part in ensuring both the safety of the patients and the well-being of the health professionals. The positive Occupational Environment (OE) management is a vital aspect of nurses and which affects the quality of patient care. This paper reports nurses’ perceptions of OE influenced by quality of life (Pro-QOL); It is defined as the satisfaction felt by nurses related to their profession. Material and methods. The research was conducted in January 2022, in the Republican-level Public Medical-Sanitary Institution, with departments multi-poly-functional. The ProQOL was used as a tool, translated into Romanian, with the consent of the author (https://proqol.org/use-the-proqol). Piloting included responses to 56 nurses, collected electronically (google-form), respect for confidentiality /anonymity, and the right to leave. Statistical data were processed in Microsoft Excel, MedCalc and others. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, the Mann - Whitney U test, was calculated to determine the significant association between the sociodemographic variables of the sample and the ProQOL levels. Results. Differences were found between compassionate satisfaction (SC=48.40±6.98) and years of experience; activity department (p<0.05). Secondary traumatic stress (STS=29.68±7.23) and significant burnout (BO=31.96±8.27) showed differences between the critical care patient department, the therapy department and the outpatient department. Secondary traumatic stress disorder (STS) has been reported in the lower limits of normal work schedule assistance (night shifts). Conclusions. Testing of the Pro-QOL instrument was satisfactory, Cronbach-alpha coefficient level> 0.70. All parameters of the Pro-QOL tool on quality of life have been reported within the norm. At the same time, the small number of research cannot describe the real situation in the quality of professional life; this argues in the following studies.