Nurses’ Strategies to Prevent or Decrease Work-Related Technostress: a Scoping Review

Abstract

Enquadramento: O Tecnostress surge como um risco psicossocial emergente resultante da incapacidade do indivíduo para lidar com as tecnologias de uma forma psicologicamente saudável. Este risco pode originar consequências na saúde mental e física dos profissionais, principalmente no que diz respeito às organizações de saúde, que já são caracterizadas como ambientes de trabalho particularmente stressantes. Os enfermeiros, por sua vez, são um dos profissionais que apresentam níveis de stress mais elevados, uma vez que o todo o processo de prestação de serviços de saúde depende da utilização de ferramentas tecnológicas e dispositivos médicos de grande complexidade. Embora existam evidências sobre o impacto do Tecnostress em algumas dimensões do bem-estar físico e psicológico destes profissionais, não existem trabalhos conhecidos que ressaltem as estratégias utilizadas pelos enfermeiros para prevenir ou diminuir o Tecnostress relacionado com o seu trabalho. Objetivo: Mapear e identificar quais são as estratégias que os enfermeiros adotam para prevenir ou diminuir o Technostress relacionado com o seu trabalho. Metodologia: Esta revisão seguirá a metodologia proposta pelo Instituto Joanna Briggs para scoping reviews. Conclusão: Após a análise de todos os artigos selecionados para leitura de texto integral, concluímos, que nenhum dos estudos se centrou nas estratégias adotadas pelos enfermeiros para prevenir ou diminuir o Tecnostress. Este resultado poderá ser explicado pela abrangência do conceito e a dificuldade em operacionalizá-lo; por falta de pesquisa sobre este tema no contexto particular das organizações de saúde; ou, pela existência de outras variáveis presentes no contexto de trabalho dos enfermeiros que são geradoras de um stress tão elevado, que acabam por se sobrepor aos próprios efeitos do Tecnostress, permanecendo estratégias adotadas pelos enfermeiros para diminuir este risco, um assunto por estudar. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Background: Technostress appears as an emerging psychosocial work risk resulting from the individual's inability to deal with technologies in a psychologically healthy way. This risk can originate consequences in professionals' mental and physical health, especially concerning healthcare workplaces, which are already characterized as high-stress environments. Nurses, in their turn, are one of the professionals that exhibit higher stress levels, since the development of healthcare delivery depends on the use of complex and intricate technological tools and medical devices. Although there is evidence of the impact of technostress regarding the physical and psychological well-being of professionals, there are no previous studies that highlight the strategies reported by nurses to prevent or decrease Technostress. Objective: To map and identify what strategies do nurses adopt to prevent or decrease work-related Technostress. Review method: This review will follow the methodology proposed by the Joanna Briggs Institute for scoping reviews. Conclusion: After analyzing all articles selected for full-text reading, we concluded that none of the studies focused on the strategies adopted by nurses to prevent or reduce work-related Technostress. This result can be explained by the fact that it is a very comprehensive concept, thus becoming difficult to operationalize; by the lack of research on this topic in the particular context of health organizations; or by the existence of other variables from nurses’ work setting environment that generates such high stress that they end up overlapping Technostress effects itself, in such a way that the nurses’ strategies to decrease this risk, remain an understudied subject._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________