The impact of the nursing profession on their friendship relationships

Introduction: Nurses work long hours, often under high stress, to care for patients and save lives. Naturally, the demands of the profession can have an impact on their personal lives, especially on their friendships.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the nursing profession on their friendships.

Methodology: The present study concerns quantitative evolutionary research in a special population (nursing staff) using self-completed questionnaires. The study started in February 2024 and ended in September 2024. The population included in the study concerned 191 nurses from a University General Hospital in Attica. Significance levels are two-sided and statistical significance was set at 0.05. The statistical program SPSS 26.0 was used for the analysis.

Results: The sample consisted of 191 nurses, 35.1% of whom were technologically educated, 33% University and 31.9% Secondary. 68.1% were female, 60.2% were in the 41-50 age group, 32.5% were 51 to 65 years old, and 7.3% were 20-40 years old. Examining correlations between scales revealed that increased sense of companionship, more reliable alliance among friends, greater emotional security, and enhanced self-confidence were related to increased affection and friendship satisfaction.

Conclusions: Despite the diversity of adult life, friendships continue to play an important role in people's lives. Nurses today have increasingly busy lives and often place many more demands on themselves than the demands already placed on them in a professional context.