[Structural equation model study on the correlation between sense of coherence, job stressors and mental health of nurses practitioners]

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the sense of coherence, job stressors and mental health status of nurses practitioners, and analyze the correlation among them. Methods: In September 2020, nurses practitioners in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province were selected as the research objects by convenience sampling method. The Sense of Coherence Scale, Nurses' Job Stressors Scale and SCL-90 were used to investigate their sense of coherence, job stressors and mental health status, respectively. Pearson correlation test was used to analyze the correlation among them, and the structural equation model was constructed to explore the mechanism of them. Results: A total of 1693 nurse practitioners were included. The total scores of sense of coherence, job stressors and SCL-90 were (65.00±14.01) points, (69.08±18.38) points and (129.68±52.99) points, respectively. The mean scores of all dimensions of sense of coherence of nurse practitioners were negatively correlated with the mean scores of all dimensions of job stressors and SCL-90 (P<0.001). And there were positive correlations between the mean scores of all dimensions of job stressors and the mean scores of all dimensions of SCL-90 (P<0.001). The structural equation model fitted well. The path coefficient between job stressors and sense of coherence was -0.372 (P<0.001), and the path coefficient between sense of coherence and SCL-90 score was -0.647 (P<0.001) . Conclusion: The sense of coherence plays a significant buffering role in job stressors and mental health of nurses practitioners. Nursing managers should be committed to improving the level of sense of coherence of nurses, enhance the happiness of nurses at work, and improve their mental health level.

Keywords: Job stressors; Mental health; Nurses; Sense of coherence; Structural equation model.