Abstract
The mental health of nurses was surveyed using the Japanese version of the 60-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). A total of 48 nurses responded to the survey.
There was no significant correlation between GHQ score and age in all the respondents. There were no significant differences in GHQ score among the outpatient nurses, those who worked in the surgical ward and those who worked in the internal medicine department and those in the care of geriatrics inpatient. Scores over 17 were marked by 45.5 % of the outpatient nurses, 58.8 % of those who worked in the surgical ward, 35 % of those in the internal medicine departmentand 35 % of those in the geriatrics ward. However, the percentage of those who had subjective symptoms was higher among the nurses in the surgical ward than the nurses in any other wards (p≤0.05).
Our results suggest that more thought should be given to the mental health of nurses and methods be developed to improve it.
