Solidarity in a Community of Nursing Colleagues

Korean Hospital Nurses' Experiences with COVID-19: A Meta-Synthesis of Qualitative Findings

This study aims to provide a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies examining the perceptions and experiences of nurses who cared for patients in dedicated COVID-19 hospitals in South Korea. We searched key health databases (RISS, KISS, KMbase, NDSL, KoreaMed, DBpia, PubMed, CINAHL, and Cochrane) from September to November 2023. We reviewed and analyzed articles using a thematic synthesis approach. The quality of the studies was ascertained using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program checklist for qualitative research. Ultimately, 13 studies involving 219 nurses were included in the final review. Six major themes and thirteen subthemes emerged. During the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, nurses were able to overcome difficult situations through their interactions with patients, sense of a professional mission, and commitment to nursing. Most importantly, they persevered through their collaboration and closeness with fellow nurses, despite confusion about their professional identity, the ethical dilemmas they faced in patient care, and the conflicting attitudes of their social support system. To prepare for future infectious disease outbreaks, a multifaceted support system should be established to enable nurses to have positive interactions with their families, colleagues, and patients, which have become central to their resilience.

Nurses' Colleague Solidarity and Job Performance: Mediating Effect of Positive Emotion and Turnover Intention

Background

Job performance is known as an essential reflection of nursing quality. Colleague solidarity, positive emotion, and turnover intention play effective roles in a clinical working environment, but their impacts on job performance are unclear. Investigating the association between nurses' colleague solidarity and job performance may be valuable, both directly and through the mediating roles of positive emotion and turnover intention.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, a total of 324 Chinese nurses were recruited by convenience sampling method from July 2016 to January 2017. Descriptive analysis, Spearman's correlation analysis, and the structural equation model were applied for analysis by SPSS 26.0 and AMOS 24.0.

Results

A total of 49.69% of participants were under 30 years old, and 90.12% of participants were female. Colleague solidarity and positive emotion were positively connected with job performance. The results indicated the mediating effects of positive emotion and turnover intention in this relationship, respectively, as well as the chain mediating effect of positive emotion and turnover intention.

Conclusions

In conclusion, dynamic and multiple supportive strategies are needed for nurse managers to ameliorate nursing job performance by improving colleague solidarity and positive emotion and decreasing turnover intention based on the job demand-resource model.

Building Solidarity with Black Nurses to Dismantle Systemic and Structural Racism in Nursing

Systemic and structural racism in nursing have profound impacts on Black People, Indigenous Peoples, and People of Color. They contributed to underrepresentation in faculty, senior nurse executives, and presidents' positions in academic and healthcare organizations, physical and mental health issues in racialized groups. This quality improvement study described ways in which the Black Nurses Task Force of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario can build solidarity with nursing and government organizations to dismantle systemic and structural racism in nursing. This study used a structured online survey, comprised of quantitative and qualitative questions. The qualitative data were analyzed using interpretative thematic analysis and the quantitative data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. Findings showed that 88% of participants experienced racism and 63% said racism affected their mental health. Three themes emerged from the qualitative data: Social support for Black nurses, accountability of leaders and solidarity with Black nurses. These findings demonstrated the urgent need to dismantle systemic and structural racism in nursing.