Student research committee, Department of Occupational Health Engineering, School of Health, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Department of Occupational Health Engineering, School of Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Work. 2024;79(3):1501-1516. doi: 10.3233/WOR-230396.
Nurses are among high-risk occupational groups during the outbreak of epidemics. Therefore, these people are required to use personal protective equipment (PPE). Previous studies have shown that the use of personal protective equipment can affect people's thermal strain and mental workload.
The present study was conducted with the aim of objectively and subjectively evaluating the use of protective clothing on the thermal strain and mental workload of nurses during the covid-19 pandemic.
This cross-sectional study was divided into two groups with a sample size of 300 people who were selected by systematic random method. In the first group, 120 people were objectively evaluated (use of protective clothing). In the second group, 180 people only completed the questionnaire of mental workload, feeling of heat and sweating and other information related to the type of clothing and the duration of its use, etc. Measurements were done in August and September of 2021 and in the morning shift of hospitals. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 software and chi-square, independent T-test and linear regression tests.
The average age and average working hours per month of the participants in the study were 33.51±7.88 years, 187.91±35.37 hours, respectively. The results showed that the predicted average vote (PMV) index and the predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PPD), moisture felt on the skin surface, the feeling of desirability and pleasantness of the temperature, the weight of sweat and the humidity inside the clothes between the two groups of people using insulated clothes There is a significant difference between medicine and dressing (P < 0.05). There was a significant relationship between mental workload and type of clothing, average working hours per month.
The use of medical isolation clothes causes a high heat load on nurses and can increase their mental workload. On the other hand, people using normal gowns suffer from a high mental workload due to the fear of disease due to the uncertainty of high-level protection. In addition, medical isolation clothes increase the humidity of the skin due to their impermeability, which causes skin complications.
护士是传染病爆发期间的高风险职业群体之一。因此，这些人需要使用个人防护设备（PPE）。先前的研究表明，使用个人防护设备会影响人们的热应激和精神工作量。
本研究旨在客观和主观评估新冠疫情期间护士使用防护服对热应激和精神工作量的影响。
这项横断面研究分为两组，每组样本量为 300 人，采用系统随机抽样法选取。在第一组中，有 120 人进行了客观评估（使用防护服）。在第二组中，有 180 人仅完成了精神工作量问卷、热感和出汗等与服装类型和使用时间等相关的信息的问卷。测量于 2021 年 8 月至 9 月和医院的早班进行。使用 SPSS 版本 21 软件进行数据分析，采用卡方检验、独立 T 检验和线性回归检验。
研究参与者的平均年龄和平均月工作时间分别为 33.51±7.88 岁和 187.91±35.37 小时。结果表明，两组人使用隔热服时，预测平均投票（PMV）指数和预测不满意百分比（PPD）、皮肤表面的湿度感、对温度的渴望感和舒适度、出汗的重量以及衣服内部的湿度有显著差异（P<0.05）。精神工作量与服装类型、月平均工作时间之间存在显著关系。
使用医用隔离服会给护士带来高热负荷，并增加他们的精神工作量。另一方面，由于对高水平保护的不确定性导致对疾病的恐惧，使用普通手术服的人会承受较高的精神工作量。此外，由于医用隔离服的不透气性，会增加皮肤的湿度，从而导致皮肤并发症。
