A literature review of factors related to hospital nurses' health-related quality of life.

AIM

To conduct a literature review in order to determine the predictors of nurses' health-related quality of life and to clarify the implications for nursing management and future study in this area.

BACKGROUND

Good health is essential to the performance of health care workers.

EVALUATION

Relevant studies were retrieved from PubMed, Medline, CINAHL, the Japan Medical Abstract Society, and the Technology Information Aggregator, Electronic. The studies selected for this review were published in English or Japanese between 1995 and 2012, investigated nurses' health-related quality of life. The identified predictive factors of each study were categorised according to type.

KEY ISSUES

Based on the criteria, 22 studies were reviewed. The predictive factors of nurses' health-related quality of life were classified into eight categories.

CONCLUSIONS

Age and occupational stress should be considered when examining unknown predictive factors of nurses' health-related quality of life. In addition, it may be useful to adopt a conceptual framework and consider patient and organisational factors in future research.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

It is necessary to identify nurses' occupational stressors and consider age during job placement in order to support their health.