Workaholism, engagement and family interaction: Comparative study in portuguese and spanish nurses.

AIM: To identify and compare workaholism, engagement and family interaction levels among Portuguese and Spanish nurses. BACKGROUND: The contribution of nursing management and leadership to workers' health and well-being is cardinal to ensure a healthy work environment. However, factors such as workaholism, engagement and family interaction can strongly influence nurses' performance, well-being and safety. METHOD: A multicentre, comparative and cross-sectional study using 333 Portuguese (54.1%) and Spanish (45.9%) nurses working in hospitals. RESULTS: Portuguese nurses showed higher levels for workaholism, negative work-family interaction and negative family-work interaction, while Spanish nurses presented higher levels of engagement, positive work-family interaction and positive family-work interaction. Gender, age, job experience time, academic training, working schedule and type of employment contract influenced workaholism, engagement and work-family interaction among nurses from both countries. CONCLUSION: During their professional practice, nurses perceived their stress differently according to each country, with Portuguese nurses presenting worst psychological conditions than Spanish nurses, namely higher workaholism, negative work-family interactions and lower engagement. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Workaholism, engagement and work-family interaction are important areas in which nursing managers must invest to better respond to the new challenges of work contexts.

Presenteeism in nurses: comparative study of Spanish, Portuguese and Brazilian nurses.

AIM: To compare presenteeism levels among three samples of nurses and to identify the relationship between presenteeism and sociodemographic and professional characteristics. BACKGROUND: Presenteeism (going to work ill) is a phenomenon studied from different perspectives, and it has become especially important during the current COVID-19 outbreak; its connection to high healthcare costs, patient safety breaches and negative nurse well-being has been proved. INTRODUCTION: The nursing profession is particularly associated with caring for the culture of teamwork, loyalty to colleagues and professional identity. This condition enhances the 'super nurse phenomenon', even though nurses do not feel physically and psychologically able to work. METHODS: A multicentre, cross-sectional study was conducted in three different country contexts: Oviedo (Spain), Porto (Portugal) and São Paulo (Brazil). Nurses performing functions in hospitals and primary health care were enrolled. Informed consent and data collection questionnaires were hand delivered. The Stanford Presenteeism Scale-6 was applied. RESULTS: A total of 659 nurses participated. Portuguese nurses showed greater prevalence of presenteeism, followed by Brazilian and Spanish nurses. Younger nurses with less professional experience presented lower levels of presenteeism but greater psychological commitment. Male participants showed lower capacity to complete work when ill than female participants. CONCLUSIONS: Age and length of professional experience proved to be significant predictors of total presenteeism, although only professional experience revealed statistical significance in the adjusted model. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND HEALTH POLICY: The knowledge of this phenomenon among nurses highlights the need for the development of strategies in the curriculum of nursing students and organizations. Resilience and ergonomic training should be applied in the training programmes of the students and reinforced by the health centre managers. It is essential that healthcare systems design worksite wellness programmes that pursue greater physical and mental well-being for healthcare professionals.

Stress appraisal, coping, and work engagement among police recruits: an exploratory study.

This study investigated the influence of stress appraisal and coping on work engagement levels (Absorption, Vigour, and Dedication) of police recruits. Participants were 387 men, ages 20 to 33 yr. (M = 24.1, SD = 2.4), in their last month of academy training before becoming police officers. Partially in support of predictions, work engagement was associated with Stressor control perceived, but not Stress intensity experienced over a self-selected stressor. Although the three dimensions of work engagement were explained by Stressor control and coping, Absorption was the dimension better explained by these variables. Police recruits reporting higher Absorption, Vigour, and Dedication reported using more Active coping and less Behavioural disengagement. Results showed that stress appraisal and coping are important variables influencing work engagement among police recruits. Findings suggested that future applied interventions fostering work engagement among police recruits should reinforce perceptions of control over a stressor as well as Active coping strategies.

Validation of the Occupational Depression Inventory in Brazil: A study of 1612 civil servants.

OBJECTIVE: The Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) assesses work-attributed depressive symptoms. The ODI has demonstrated robust psychometric and structural properties. To date, the instrument has been validated in English, French, and Spanish. This study examined the psychometric and structural properties of the ODI's Brazilian-Portuguese version. METHODS: The study involved 1612 civil servants employed in Brazil (MAGE = 44, SDAGE = 9; 60% female). The study was conducted online across all Brazilian states. RESULTS: Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) bifactor analysis indicated that the ODI meets the requirements for essential unidimensionality. The general factor accounted for 91% of the common variance extracted. We found measurement invariance to hold across sexes and age groups. Consistent with these findings, the ODI showed strong scalability (H = 0.67). The instrument's total score accurately ranked respondents on the latent dimension underlying the measure. Furthermore, the ODI exhibited excellent total-score reliability (e.g., McDonald's ω = 0.93). Occupational depression correlated negatively with work engagement and each of its components (vigor, dedication, and absorption), speaking to the ODI's criterion validity. Finally, the ODI helped clarify the issue of burnout-depression overlap. Relying on ESEM confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), we found burnout's components to correlate more strongly with occupational depression than with each other. Using a higher-order ESEM-within-CFA framework, we found a correlation of 0.95 between burnout and occupational depression. CONCLUSION: The ODI displays robust psychometric and structural properties within the Brazilian context. The ODI constitutes a valuable resource for occupational health specialists and may help advance research on job-related distress.

Impact of a Virtual Reality-Based Simulation on Empathy and Attitudes Toward Schizophrenia.

Virtual Reality (VR) has been identified as one of the most promising resources for developing empathy towards stigmatized groups as it allows individuals to experience a situation close to reality from another person's perspective. This quasi-experimental study aimed to examine the impact on empathy, knowledge, and attitudes towards people with schizophrenia of a VR simulation that reproduces the experience of psychotic symptoms while performing a cognitive task compared with watching a 2D video and, thus, how these experiences could reduce stigma towards people diagnosed with schizophrenia. The sample comprised of 102 higher education health students, distributed by the experimental and control groups. The impact of the program was measured by completing multiple questionnaires on levels of empathy, attitudes, and mental health knowledge. Both methods (VR and 2D video) were, to a certain extent, effective. However, VR was more effective at eliciting attitudes and knowledge change compared to the control group. These findings suggest that not only VR but also 2D videos could be interesting strategies to enhance empathy and improve attitudes towards people with schizophrenia in higher education health students.

Cognitive processing of emotions in anorexia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE: This study attempts to explore the cognitive processing of emotions in anorexia nervosa (AN), based on the study of emotions felt and the assessment of meta-emotional abilities. METHOD: Eighty patients with AN and a control group of 80 healthy female participants were screened for anxiety, depression and alexithymia and completed an experimental task designed to analyse the emotional experience and meta-emotional abilities. RESULTS: Despite presenting higher levels of alexithymia, participants with AN demonstrated they were able to imagine emotions in hypothetical situations and to identify and label them. The group of patients with AN revealed feeling more intense and internally based negative emotions in comparison with the control group, but this emotional pattern tends to occur in situations associated with food and weight. CONCLUSIONS: Findings on meta-emotional abilities suggested no global deficit in emotional processing, but rather, specific sensitivities pertaining to situations relevant to AN.

Why are emergency medical technicians' coping strategies dysfunctional? Direct and indirect effects of resilience and perceived stress.

BACKGROUND: Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) are at high risk for traumatic disorders, and these disorders are more likely if they resort to dysfunctional coping. However, few studies have examined how dysfunctional coping can be decreased, specifically by comparing the impact of personal characteristics, such as resilience, and of occupational factors, such as stress. This study examines the contribution of resilience and perceived stress on EMTs' dysfunctional coping. METHODS: A total of 502 EMTs (66% men), with a job experience of approximately 8 years (SD = 3.84), answered the Resilience Scale (Self and Life Acceptance; Personal Competence; Total score), Brief Cope, and Anxiety Depression Stress Scales. RESULTS: EMTs reported high resilience, low stress and dysfunctional coping. Resilience dimensions, specifically self and life acceptance, and stress contributed to dysfunctional coping. Stress displayed the highest regression coefficient. The effect of self and life acceptance on dysfunctional coping was no longer significant when accounting for stress, revealing a full mediation effect. CONCLUSIONS: How EMTs perceive stress can mitigate the protective role of acceptance on the use of dysfunctional coping. These findings suggest EMTs' occupational training may benefit from focusing on how to manage stressful and critical incidents, as well as on how to cope with stress.

Psychometric properties of the Portuguese Dutch Work Addiction Scale.

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the psychometric properties of the Dutch Work Addiction Scale in a sample of Portuguese nurses. METHOD: A methodological study was conducted with 1,030 Portuguese nurses. A sociodemographic/professional questionnaire and the Dutch Work Addiction Scale applied between October and December 2019. RESULTS: The Confirmatory Factorial Analyses confirmed the factorial structure of two dimensions, namely Working Excessively (α = .730) and Working Compulsively (α = .752), grounded on the theoretical model of workaholism; the reliability values were considered adequate. Nurses presented a moderate level of workaholism, with a higher mean value for Working Excessively. CONCLUSION: The results raised the issue of workaholism and highlighted the need for further study. The Portuguese version of the DUWAS presented good psychometric characteristics and can be considered a valid and useful instrument to identify this problem.

Workaholism and family interaction among nurses.

This study aims to identify the prevalence of workaholism and work-family interaction, their relationship and their variation according sociodemographic and occupational characteristics among nurses. A quantitative, descriptive, correlational and transversal study was conducted with a sample of 839 Portuguese nurses. Regarding workaholism, 27% of workaholic nurses were identified, scoring a higher mean value for excessive work. For work-family interaction, the dimensions showing the highest mean values were the negative work-family interaction and the positive family-work interaction. The variables identified as significant predictors of workaholism were the work-family interaction (39%), occupational variables (10.6%) and sociodemographic variables (1.2%). Among the occupational and professional variables, the women, age equal or less than 37 years and perception of stressful work, were highlighted. The confirmation of workaholism in nurses, as well as its predictive variables are significantly important for professionals and organizations to better understand the impact of this phenomenon, particularly in mental health and to encourage the development of programmes aiming to promote health at the workplace.

Study for the Design of a Protocol to Assess the Impact of Stress in the Quality of Life of Workers.

(1) Background: Work stress is one of the most relevant issues in public health. It has a significant impact on health, especially the development of mental disorders, causing occupational imbalance. There is a growing interest in the development of tools with a positive effect on workers. To this end, wearable technology is becoming increasingly popular, as it measures biometric variables like heartbeat, activity, and sleep. This information may be used to assess the stress a person is suffering, which could allow the development of stress coping strategies, both at a professional and personal level. (2) Methods: This paper describes an observational, analytical, and longitudinal study which will be set at a research center in A Coruña, Spain. Various scales and questionnaires will be filled in by the participants throughout the study. For the statistical analysis, specific methods will be used to evaluate the association between numerical and categorical variables. (3) Discussion: This study will lay the foundation for a bigger, more complete study to assess occupational stress in different work environments. This will allow us to begin to understand how occupational stress influences daily life activity and occupational balance, which could directly enhance the quality of life of workers if the necessary measures are taken.

Burnout among nurses: a multicentric comparative study.

OBJETIVO: to identify and compare burnout levels between Portuguese, Spanish and Brazilian nurses. METHOD: quantitative, descriptive, correlational, comparative and cross-sectional study conducted using a sample of 1,052 nurses working in hospitals and primary care centers. A sociodemographic questionnaire and the Maslach Burnout Inventory were applied to nurses in Porto, Portugal (n=306), Oviedo, Spain (n=269) and S. Paulo, Brazil (n=477). Data analysis was performed using descriptive, inferential and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: approximately 42% of the nurses showed moderate/high levels of burnout, with no differences found between countries (Portugal and Brazil 42%, Spain 43%). Only depersonalization showed differences between countries, presenting Spain the highest level and Portugal the lowest one. Comparative analysis showed higher burnout levels in young nurses and those working by shifts. Considering job schedules, burnout was associated to shift work in Portugal, while in Spain and Brazil it was associated with fixed schedules. CONCLUSION: these results suggest that this syndrome among nurses is a global phenomenon. The daily stressors and higher demands of the nursing profession are crucial in the preparation of nurses to deal with complex situations, to avoid burnout, and to reduce the negative impact on nurses' health and on the quality of care they provide.

Recognizing Emotions through Facial Expressions: A Largescale Experimental Study.

Experimental research examining emotional processes is typically based on the observation of images with affective content, including facial expressions. Future studies will benefit from databases with emotion-inducing stimuli in which characteristics of the stimuli potentially influencing results can be controlled. This study presents Portuguese normative data for the identification of seven facial expressions of emotions (plus a neutral face), on the Radboud Faces Database (RaFD). The effect of participants' gender and models' sex on emotion recognition was also examined. Participants (N = 1249) were exposed to 312 pictures of white adults displaying emotional and neutral faces with a frontal gaze. Recognition agreement between the displayed and participants' chosen expressions ranged from 69% (for anger) to 97% (for happiness). Recognition levels were significantly higher among women than among men only for anger and contempt. The emotion recognition was higher either in female models or in male models depending on the emotion. Overall, the results show high recognition levels of the facial expressions presented, indicating that the RaFD provides adequate stimuli for studies examining the recognition of facial expressions of emotion among college students. Participants' gender had a limited influence on emotion recognition, but the sex of the model requires additional consideration.

Job Stress, Burnout and Coping in Police Officers: Relationships and Psychometric Properties of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire.

Policing is a stressful occupation, which impairs police officers' physical/mental health and elicits burnout, aggressive behaviors and suicide. Resilience and coping facilitate the management of job stress policing, which can be operational or organizational. All these constructs are associated, and they must be assessed by instruments sensitive to policing idiosyncrasies. This study aims to identify operational and organizational stress, burnout, resilient coping and coping strategies among police officers, as well to analyze the psychometric properties of a Portuguese version of the Organizational Police Stress Questionnaire. A cross-sectional study, with online questionnaires, collected data of 1131 police officers. With principal components and confirmatory factor analysis, PSQ-org revealed adequate psychometric properties, despite the exclusion of four items, and revealed a structure with two factors (poor management and lack of resources, and responsibilities and burden). Considering cut-off points, 88.4% police officers presented high operational stress, 87.2% high organizational stress, 10.9% critical values for burnout and 53.8% low resilient coping, preferring task-orientated than emotion and avoidance coping. Some differences were found according to gender, age and job experience. Job stress and burnout correlated negatively with resilient coping, enthusiasm towards job and task-orientated coping. Results reinforce the importance to invest on police officers' occupational health.

Burnout and Stress Measurement in Police Officers: Literature Review and a Study With the Operational Police Stress Questionnaire.

Research has demonstrated that policing is a stressful occupation and that this stress has a negative impact on police officers' mental and physical health, performance, and interactions with citizens. Mental health at the workplace has become a concern due to the costs of depression, anxiety, burnout, and even suicide, which is high among police officers. To ameliorate occupational health, it is therefore crucial to identify stress and burnout levels on a regular basis. However, the instruments frequently used to measure stress have not valorized the specificity of policing tasks. This study aims to: (i) conduct a literature review to identify questionnaires used to assess occupational stress and burnout among police officers; (ii) analyze the psychometric characteristics of a Portuguese version of Operational Police Stress Questionnaire (PSQ-Op); and, using the PSQ-Op and other questionnaires, (iii) to identify operational stress, burnout, and distress levels among Portuguese police officers. The literature review identified 108 studies which use a multiplicity of questionnaires to measure burnout or occupational stress among police officers, but few studies use specific police stress questionnaires. Sample sizes were mostly below 500 participants and studies were mainly developed in the last decade in the USA and Brazil, but also in another 24 countries, showing the extent of the interest in this topic. This study applied to 2057 police officers from the National Portuguese Police, a force policing urban centers, and used the PSQ-Op, as well the Spanish Burnout Inventory and the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale. The results show that the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of PSQ-Op are adequate. Factorial analysis revealed two dimensions defined as social and work issues, which were associated with measures of distress and burnout. Fit indices suggested a second-order solution called operational police stress. Overall, and considering the scale range of each questionnaire, the results showed moderate values of operational stress, distress, and burnout. However, considering their cut-off points, 85% of the sample presented high operational stress levels, 11% critical values for burnout, and 28% high distress levels, with 55% of the sample at risk of a psychological disorder. These results reinforce the need to prevent stress and to invest in police officers' occupational health.

Suicides of Male Portuguese Police Officers - 10 years of National Data.

Background: Police officers, as first responders to difficult situations with ready access to firearms, are frequently considered to be at increased suicide risk. Aims: We aimed to calculate the suicide rate for male officers of the Portuguese National Police (PSP) and compare it with the Portuguese general population. Method: Retrospective review of the PSP male officers' suicides between 2005 and 2014 and comparison with the suicide rate for the general Portuguese population, adjusted for sex and age. Results: A total of 39 suicides were identified, with 34 using a firearm - mostly the service one (30 cases). The average truncated (20-59 years) suicide rate for male officers was 20.6 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI =14.2-27.1). Over the same period, the rate for the general Portuguese population was 13.9 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI = 13.5-14.3). The standardized rate ratio was 1.5 (95% CI = 0.9-2.4). Limitations: Despite the 10-year period of observation, this is a small sample and there are issues with missing data, such as lack of information for retired or dismissed police officers. Denominators were converted to estimates of person-years observations and we should be mindful of the limitations in the validity of the reported rates. Conclusion: Portuguese male police officers mostly die by suicide using service firearms. The suicide rates among them were not statistically different from those of the sex- and age-adjusted general population. However, given that police officers are healthy workers, we would expect lower rates - thus, similar rates could suggest an increased risk in the study sample.

Transcultural Adaptation of the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) for Brazil and Portugal.

During the last few years, burnout has gained more and more attention for its strong connection with job performance, absenteeism, and presenteeism. It is a psychological phenomenon that depends on occupation, also presenting differences between sexes. However, to properly compare the burnout levels of different groups, a psychometric instrument with adequate validity evidence should be selected (i.e., with measurement invariance). This paper aims to describe the psychometric properties of the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) version adapted for workers from Brazil and Portugal, and to compare burnout across countries and sexes. OLBI's validity evidence based on the internal structure (dimensionality, reliability, and measurement invariance), and validity evidence based on relationships with other variables (work engagement) are described. Additionally, it aims presents a revision of different OLBI's versions-since this is the first version of the instrument developed simultaneously for both countries-it is an important instrument for understanding burnout between sexes in organizations. Data were used from 1,172 employees across two independent samples, one from Portugal and the other from Brazil, 65 percent being female. Regarding the OLBI internal structure, a reduced version (15 items) was obtained. The high correlation between disengagement and exhaustion, suggested the existence of a second-order latent factor, burnout, which presented measurement invariance for country and sex. Confirmatory factor analysis of the Portuguese OLBI version presented good goodness-of-fit indices and good internal consistency values. No statistically significant differences were found in burnout between sexes or countries. OLBI also showed psychometric properties that make it a promising and freely available instrument to measure and compare burnout levels of Portuguese and Brazilian employees.

Compassion fatigue among nurses working on an adult emergency and urgent care unit. / Fadiga por compaixão em enfermeiros de urgência e emergência hospitalar de adultos.

OBJECTIVE: to assess compassion fatigue levels among nurses and its variation according socio-demographic and professional characteristics. METHOD: quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study, with 87 nurses from an emergency and urgent care unit for adults from a university hospital. A socio-demographic and professional questionnaire, along with the Professional Quality of Life Scale 5 were used. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: compassion satisfaction presents the highest means, followed by burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Among the participants, 51% presented a high level of compassion satisfaction, 54% a high level of burnout, and 59% a high level of secondary traumatic stress. Older participants presented higher score of compassion satisfaction, and younger nurses, women, nurses having less job experience and nurses without leisure activities showed higher means of secondary traumatic stress. CONCLUSION: we found compassion fatigue, expressed in the large percentage of nurses with high levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Fatigue is related to individual factors such as age, gender, job experience and leisure activities. Doing research and understanding this phenomenon allow the development of health promotion strategies at work.

Brazil-Portugal Transcultural Adaptation of the UWES-9: Internal Consistency, Dimensionality, and Measurement Invariance.

The aim of this paper is to present a revision of international versions of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and to describe the psychometric properties of a Portuguese version of the UWES-9 developed simultaneously for Brazil and Portugal, the validity evidence related with the internal structure, namely, Dimensionality, measurement invariance between Brazil and Portugal, and Reliability of the scores. This is the first UWES version developed simultaneously for both countries, and it is an important instrument for understanding employees' work engagement in the organizations, allowing human resources departments to better use workforces, especially when they are migrants. A total of 524 Brazilian workers and 522 Portuguese workers participated in the study. Confirmatory Factor Analysis, group comparisons, and Reliability estimates were used. The use of workers who were primarily professionals or administrative support, according to ISCO-08, reinforced the need to collect data on other professional occupations. Confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable fit for the UWES-9 original three-factor solution, and a second-order factor structure has been proposed that presented an acceptable fit. Full-scale invariance was obtained between the Portuguese and Brazilian samples, both for the original three-factor first-order and second-order models. Data revealed that Portuguese and Brazilian workers didn't show statistically significant differences in the work engagement dimensions. This version allows for direct comparisons of means and, consequently, for performance of comparative and cross-cultural studies between these two countries.

Work-related determinants of psychosocial risk factors among employees in the hospital setting.

BACKGROUND: Understanding which factors influence occupational safety and health risks is crucial to promote psychosocial risk management. OBJECTIVE: To assess the main work-related determinants of high exposure to psychosocial risk factors among Portuguese employees in the hospital setting. METHODS: Between May and July 2014, 399 employees of a public hospital completed a structured questionnaire. Psychosocial factors were assessed by the Portuguese medium length version of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire. Age and gender adjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were computed by logistic regression models. RESULTS: The highest psychosocial risks emerged in the p ersonality (53.8%), workplace demands (28.1%), and social relationships and leadership (24.4%) categories. Professionals with non-health care roles presented a higher risk in the worker-work interface (OR = 2.60;95% CI:1.02-6.62), that evaluated work insecurity, satisfaction and the work-family interface. Shift workers were exposed to a higher psychosocial risk in workplace demands (OR = 1.79;95% CI:1.10-2.91), personality (OR = 2.45;95% CI:1.36-4.41), and health and well-being (OR = 3.18; 95% CI:1.72-5.66). Non-government employees had a higher risk exposure in personality (OR = 2.20;95% CI:1.15-4.21), and those who were absent from work in personality (OR = 2.62;95% CI:1.41-4.86), and health and wellbeing (OR = 2.34;95% CI:1.27-4.31). CONCLUSIONS: Employees working in the hospital setting are vulnerable to psychosocial risk factors. Identifying those risks contributes to optimize workers' psychosocial health, increasing the effectiveness of the organization.

Work Engagement among Rescue Workers: Psychometric Properties of the Portuguese UWES.

Rescue workers have a stressful and risky occupation where being engaged is crucial to face physical and emotional risks in order to help other persons. This study aims to estimate work engagement levels of rescue workers (namely comparing nurses, firefighters, and police officers) and to assess the validity evidence related to the internal structure of the Portuguese versions of the UWES-17 and UWES-9, namely, dimensionality, measurement invariance between occupational groups, and reliability of the scores. To evaluate the dimensionality, we compared the fit of the three-factor model with the fit of a second-order model. A Portuguese version of the instrument was applied to a convenience sample of 3,887 rescue workers (50% nurses, 39% firefighters, and 11% police officers). Work engagement levels were moderate to high, with firefighters being the highest and nurses being the lowest engaged. Psychometric properties were evaluated in the three-factor original structure revealing acceptable fit to the data in the UWES-17, although the UWES-9 had better psychometric properties. Given the observed statistically significant correlations between the three original factors, we proposed a 2nd hierarchal structure that we named work engagement. The UWES-9 first-order model obtained full uniqueness measurement invariance, and the second-order model obtained partial (metric) second-order invariance.