Relationship between Occupational Prestige and Social Health of Nursing Staff: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: One of the features that any profession possesses is that it occupies a social status relative to other professions. The present paper contributes to the discussion on the relationship between nursing occupational prestige and social health.Method: This study was a cross-sectional research that was conducted in 2015. The study population consisted of 200 staff nurses working in all hospitals located in Hamedan, Iran. A convenience sampling was employed to select 200 nurses who were asked respond to the 25item Keyes’s Social Health Questionnaire and the16-item Nursing Occupational Prestige Questionnaire. Higher score reflected better social health and occupational prestige. The quantitative analysis of this study was carried out using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS).Results: There were more females than males in this study (Female: 81.1%, N: 163). The ages of the nurses ranged from 20 to 55 years, with a mean age of 30.9 years (SD 7.58). The majority of the nurses were married (57.2%, n = 115). Result showed that the total mean social health score for nurses was 43.88±9.18. Two percent of the nurses reported having very low social health (range of very low social health score: 25–44) and 20% reported having low Social health (range of low Social health score: 44–63). 75.5% believed that average social health (range of average social healh score:63–82) and 2.5% reported great social health (range of great social health score: 82–100)and mean score of occupational prestige was 44.83±25.14 and 64.7% of the nurses were reported to have average occupational prestige.Social health was significantly related to occupational prestige in the nurses (r=0.15, P=0.04).Conclusion: Nurses’ social health deserves special attention. Effective social health promotion strategies should be considered for promoting their social health particularly in occupational prestige

کلیدواژه ها:

nursing staff ، occupational prestige ، social health