<b>Musculoskeletal symptoms in nursing personnel: an integrative review</b> - DOI: 10.4025/cienccuidsaude.v8i4.9707

Abstract

The occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders, their risk factors and its consequences have been of concern of scholars in the area of occupational health. This integrative review aimed to examine studies related to musculoskeletal symptoms in nursing personnel. It was decided to search for articles in national and international journals, published in Portuguese and Spanish, from 1996 to 2007, available in databases belonging to the Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS) - Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS), Base de Dados da Enfermagem (BDENF), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SCIELO). A total of 15 articles selected and analyzed according to the authors, publication year, country, population, type of survey, instrument used for data collection, time of prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms and the findings. It was found that the literature on the topic is scarce in Latin American countries. The studies evaluated different professional categories of the nursing staff and the instruments used were varied, some of them were validated and others not. There was variability in the time of prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms, as well as in the rates found. The diversity in methodological procedures makes difficult comparison between studies.