Correlation of Assertiveness and Depression in Clinical Nurses

임상간호사의 자기표현성과 우울의 상관관계

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the degrees of assertiveness and depression in clinical nurses and identify the relationships between them. Method: The study included 261 clinical nurses working at one university hospital in the Kyunggi province. The assertiveness scale and a micro simple mental diagnosis test were used to assess the variables. Data were analyzed using SPSS. Results: The average assertiveness score was $3.04{\pm}0.38$ and an average depression score $1.23{\pm}0.71$. Statistically significant differences in assertiveness were identified with regards to marital status (p=.034), type of families (p=.005), number of counselling persons (p=.007), and subjective mental health status (p<.001). In addition, the assertiveness scores were statistically significant based on job position(p=.032), and the levels of satisfaction with nursing job (p=.015). There were significant negative correlations between assertiveness and depression of clinical nurses(r=-.237, p<.001). Conclusion: These findings suggest that assertiveness training for clinical nurses is necessary, especially for novice nurses, in order to decrease the level of depression.