Exploring novice nurses’ needs regarding their work-related health: a qualitative study

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Abstract

Purpose

To investigate Dutch novice nurses’ experiences and needs regarding occupational health support to prevent work-related health problems and to keep them well-functioning.

Methods

A qualitative interview study was conducted with six nursing students and eight newly qualified nurses. The interviews covered three topics: experiences with the link between work and health, received occupational health support, and occupational health support needs. Data were analysed using a grounded theory approach.

Results

Participants reported experiences with work-related health problems early in their career and described experiences with how health problems lead to suboptimal work functioning. Occupational health support needs included knowledge and psychosocial support during nursing education, e.g. through paying attention to dealing with shift work, or career counselling. Also, they reported a need for knowledge and psychosocial support at the start of their clinical placement or new job in the hospital, e.g. information from occupational health services or having a mentor. Furthermore, they reported that occupational health support requires a more general place at work through offering knowledge, e.g. tailored advice on proper lifting position; psychosocial support, e.g. positive team atmosphere; and physical support, e.g. suitable preventive measures.

Conclusions

Occupational health support for novice nurses is important, since they already experience work-related health problems and suboptimal work functioning due to health problems early in their career and while still in training to be a nurse. Novice nurses should be given more knowledge and support to help them stay healthy and well-functioning in their work. This is a joint responsibility of nurse educators, the employer and occupational health services.

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Most cited references 19

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Anxiety symptoms among Chinese nurses and the associated factors: a cross sectional study

Yu-Qin Gao, Bo-Chen Pan, Wei Sun … (2012)

Background Nurses are an indispensable component of the work force in the health care system. However, many of them are known to work in a stressful environment which may affect their mental well-being; the situation could be worse in rapidly transforming societies such as China. The purpose of this study was to investigate anxiety symptoms and the associated factors in Chinese nurses working in public city hospitals. Methods A cross-sectional survey was performed for Chinese nurses in public city hospitals of Liaoning Province, northeast China. Seven hospitals in different areas of the province were randomly selected for the study. The Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale was used to measure anxiety symptoms. Effort-reward imbalance questionnaire and Job Content Questionnaire were used to assess the work stressors. Univariate analysis and stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to identify the factors associated with anxiety symptoms. Results All registered nurses in the seven city hospitals, totaling 1807 registered nurses were surveyed. Of the returned questionnaires, 1437 were valid (79.5%) for analysis. Utilizing the total raw score ≥ 40 as the cut-off point, the prevalence of anxiety symptoms in these nurses was 43.4%. Demographic factors (education, chronic disease and life event), lifestyle factors (regular meals and physical exercise), work conditions (hospital grade, job rank, monthly salary, nurse-patient relationships, job satisfaction and intention of leaving), job content (social support and decision latitude), effort-reward imbalance and overcommitment were all significantly related to the anxiety symptoms. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed main factors associated with anxiety symptoms were lower job rank (OR 2.501), overcommitment (OR 2.018), chronic diseases (OR 1.541), worse nurse-patient relationship (OR 1.434), higher social support (OR 0.573), lower hospital grade (OR 0.629), taking regular meals (OR 0.719) and higher level of job satisfaction (OR 0.722). Conclusions A large proportion of Chinese nurses working in public city hospitals had anxiety symptoms, which warrants immediate investigation and intervention from the hospital administrators. Meanwhile, results of the study suggest that proper counseling, promotion of healthy lifestyle behavior and improvements to the social environment in the work place may be helpful toward reducing or preventing the anxiety symptoms.

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Early-career burnout among new graduate nurses: a prospective observational study of intra-individual change trajectories.

J Gustavsson, Ann Rudman (2011)

Newly qualified and inexperienced nurses are at particular risk of suffering emotional exhaustion and burnout in unsupportive practice environments. Despite new nurses' potential vulnerability, development of burnout after graduation has rarely been studied longitudinally and in relation to demographic and educational characteristics prior to working life entry, i.e. during education. To identify and compare typical change trajectories (i.e. common patterns of intra-individual development) in burnout symptoms for new graduate nurses annually over a three-year period, during which there was reason to believe that this group was especially vulnerable. A prospective longitudinal and national cohort of 1153 nurses within the population-based LANE study (Longitudinal Analyses of Nursing Education), where new graduate nurses were assessed four times annually, i.e. in their final year of nursing education and three times post graduation (after 1, 2 and 3 years). A longitudinal sample of 997 respondents was prospectively followed. Within-group changes in burnout levels were analysed using a repeated-measures analysis of variance, and cluster analytic techniques were used to identify typical trajectories of burnout. At group level, mean levels of burnout were rather stable across time. However, underlying these levels we identified eight change trajectories, explaining 74% of all individual variation; seven of them reflected significant changes across time. Almost every fifth nurse reported extremely high levels of burnout at some point during their first three years after graduation. Changes in burnout levels were accompanied by concurrent changes in depressive symptoms and intention to leave the profession. This study also showed that negative development of burnout was predicted by not feeling well prepared for a nursing job, lacking study interest, high levels of performance-based self-esteem and depressive mood in the final year of education. An investigation of burnout symptoms over time disclosed numerous development patterns, some of which were stable while others changed significantly. Hence, this study gave a more nuanced picture of burnout development among new graduate nurses, highlighted by eight different trajectories. Regarding the time frame, nearly every second new graduate showed a significant increase in levels of burnout during their second year post graduation. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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Emotional job demands and the role of matching job resources: a cross-sectional survey study among health care workers.

Paul de Jonge, Bernard Peeters, Hanneke Noordam … (2008)

Research on emotional labour in health care work has not yet revealed under what conditions emotional job demands have an impact on employee health and well-being. There is a need for more theory to unveil the black box of emotional labour processes. To test the moderating role of matching (i.e. emotional) and non-matching (i.e. cognitive) job resources in the relation between emotional job demands and employee health/well-being (i.e. emotional exhaustion, employee creativity, and work motivation). A cross-sectional survey with anonymous questionnaires was conducted. A large organization for residential elderly care with eight locations in an urban area in the Netherlands. Questionnaires were distributed to 1259 health care workers, of which 826 people returned the questionnaire (66% response rate). In addition to descriptive statistics, multivariate multiple regression analysis (LISREL 8.54) with cross-validation was conducted. Findings showed that emotional job resources moderated the relation between emotional job demands and health/well-being outcomes. Firstly, emotional job resources were able to moderate the relation between emotional job demands and emotional exhaustion. Secondly, both emotional job resources and, to a lesser extent, cognitive job resources were able to moderate the relation between emotional job demands and positive well-being outcomes (i.e. employee creativity and work motivation). Finally, cross-validation showed that parameter estimates did not vary across subsamples. Job resources could compensate for resources lost through meeting the requirements of emotional job demands, thereby reducing stress-reactions and increasing well-being. Providing health care workers with more, preferably matching, job resources could make emotional job demands less stressful, and even stimulating and challenging. Future longitudinal studies should investigate the interplay of emotional job demands and (matching) job resources more profoundly.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Sarah M. Ketelaar: +31 20 5663249 , S.M.Ketelaar@amc.uva.nl

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Int Arch Occup Environ Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Int Arch Occup Environ Health

Title: International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health

Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg (Berlin/Heidelberg )

ISSN (Print): 0340-0131

ISSN (Electronic): 1432-1246

Publication date (Electronic): 30 January 2015

Publication date PMC-release: 30 January 2015

Publication date (Print): 2015

Volume: 88

Issue: 7

Pages: 953-962

Affiliations

Academic Medical Center, Coronel Institute of Occupational Health, University of Amsterdam, PO Box 22700, 1100 DE Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Article

Publisher ID: 1022

DOI: 10.1007/s00420-015-1022-5

PMC ID: 4564438

PubMed ID: 25632884

SO-VID: 58589e69-29b9-4660-96c2-711c9ec14a68

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.

History

Date received : 29 July 2014

Date accepted : 16 January 2015

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Occupational & Environmental medicine

Keywords: health personnel,needs assessment,nursing students,occupational health services,primary prevention

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Occupational & Environmental medicine

Keywords: health personnel, needs assessment, nursing students, occupational health services, primary prevention

Exploring novice nurses’ needs regarding their work-related health: a qualitative study

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China Occupational Medicine

Most cited references 19

Anxiety symptoms among Chinese nurses and the associated factors: a cross sectional study

Early-career burnout among new graduate nurses: a prospective observational study of intra-individual change trajectories.

Emotional job demands and the role of matching job resources: a cross-sectional survey study among health care workers.

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