Journal of Ergonomics

Nowadays, people spend most of their time in organizations that can have different effects on people's health due to various factors such as health conditions, workload, job demand and job resources [1-4]. Hospital is one of the organizations that can have a great impact on the health problems of employees [4]. Macroergonomics plays an important role in creating a suitable work environment, and with its proper use, we can see a 60 to 90 percent increase in the organization's productivity [5-6]. Conceptually, macroargonomics can be defined as a social-technical system approach from top to bottom in the design of work systems and the design of human-job, human-machine-machine and human-software system mediators. Despite the emphasis on microergonomic interventions, the results of these interventions are insufficient and therefore the achievement of ergonomic goals depends on the application of macroergonomics [7]. On the other hand, having the needed macroergonomical information of an organization, the harm of every job can be evaluated and using the results of this evaluation, to allocate budgets and time for further analysis to increase the productivity of the organization [8]. The results of comprehensive ergonomic interventions show a decrease in musculoskeletal disorders, job stress, performance improvement and employee participation [18-21].
Since previous studies have not considered all the effective dimensions to determine the macroergonomic status of the organization and few studies have been conducted in the field of macroergonomic status in hospitals, this study intends to relate the macroergonomic status of educational hospitals in Urmia to determine the use of the questionnaire and take into account the dimensions affecting macroergonomics with MSDs and job stress.

 

The data of this study were collected using a questionnaire and through interviews with staff of Urmia Educational and Medical Hospitals including nurses, operating room staff, laboratory staff, radiology staff, services and administrative affairs staff in administrative, medical and service departments. The study participants were 350 people who were randomly selected from 5 educational and medical centers in Urmia.
Three macroergonomic questionnaires, a Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire (NMQ) and a job stress outcomes questionnaire were used to collect the data required for this study. The Macroargonomics Questionnaire had 6 dimensions: tasks, organizational conditions, environment, tools, technology, and individual characteristics [24]. Its personal characteristics included work experience, work history, age, type of job, level of education and type of employment. Questions related to each of the factors were extracted from valid questionnaires used in previous scientific studies [1, 24-32]. Then, the macroargonomy questionnaire was translated and after the translation was approved by a specialist, the questionnaire was given to 3 ergonomic experts and according to their opinions, the apparent validity of the questionnaire was confirmed. Internal stability was calculated using Cronbach's alpha method until the final questionnaire was prepared. To examine the prevalence of MSDs the Nordic questionnaire was used (30). The questionnaire of the consequences of job stress, psychological variables refer to symptoms such as stress, dementia, pain and anxiety (1).

 

Demographic data and data results are shown in Tables 1 to 4.
 

Table 1. Absolute and relative frequency distribution of qualitative descriptive demographic characteristics of the study population

Table 2. Mean and standard deviation of macroergonomic scores and its factors by each hospital (N =350)

Table 3. Chi-square test results to compare the frequency of two groups of macroargonomics in terms of MSDs over the past year

Musculoskeletal Disorders * Group 1: No Group 2: Has Microargonomic Conditions ** Group 1: Undesirable Group 2: Optimal

Table 4. Results of Chi-square test to compare the frequency of two groups of macroergonomics in terms of stress by hospital

Stress * Group 1: No Group 2: Has Microargonomic Conditions ** Group 1: Undesirable Group 2: Desirable

The situation of macroergonomics in general was in the best range in hospitals, but the situation of macro ergonomics in hospitals was different. Because hospitals had different management teams for hospital management, there was a significant difference between hospitals in macroergonomic scores and related factors; the more tasks assigned to employees fitting their capability and the work environment and the more useful tools used, the higher the score of macroergonomics was.
Macroergonomic conditions were significantly associated with musculoskeletal disorders and the consequences of job stress. Previous research by researchers showed that the organization and the working environment, especially in hospitals, play a significant role in the health problems of employees, including musculoskeletal disorders and job stress [1, 4, 12].

 

According to the findings of the present study, working conditions in terms of macroargonomics can have a significant effect on musculoskeletal disorders and job stress, and the implementation of macroergonomic programs with the aim of improving working conditions can decrease work-related injuries and health problems, including musculoskeletal disorders and job stress.

 

The authors appreciate the help of all those who helped them writing this article.

 

The authors declared no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.