Burnout and areas of work-life among anaesthetists in South Africa Part 2 : areas of work-life

Early Career South African Occupational Therapists' Perceptions of Person-Environment Fit in Work-Life Areas That Influence Work Stress

Introduction: Poor fit between the work environment and work expectations is associated with high levels of workplace-related stress. Work stress in occupational therapy has been attributed to the nature of the profession and various other workplace-related factors. Workplace-related stress leading to burnout has been found to be higher in early career occupational therapists with less than 5 years of experience. This study explored workplace factors that result in poor person-work environment fit in six work-life areas in South African early career occupational therapists. Methods: A descriptive electronic survey design was used to access a sample of South African 261 occupational therapists with 2-5 years of work experience. The Area of Work-Life Survey (AWS) considers six work-life areas: control, workload, community, rewards, values, and fairness, which were used to collect data. Data were analysed to determine low, moderate, and high work environment fit for workplace factors including employment setting, field of practice, years' experience, time with current organization, and hours worked. Results: Of the six work-life areas, only the scores for workload fell below the norm for the respondents. All six work-life areas were impacted by employment settings, with respondents in public health hospitals and clinics indicating significantly low person-environment fit in most areas. Respondents in physical rehabilitation had a significantly low fit for workload, as did years of experience, length of time with organization, and hours worked. Fairness had a low fit for physical rehabilitation and medicolegal fields of practice. Conclusion: Workload impacted workplace-related stress in respondents with scores below the norm on the AWS for this work-life area. Although some work-related factors affected workplace-related stress, the overall scores for the other work-life areas were above the norm, with only respondents in public service settings and in the field of physical rehabilitation reporting low work environment fit.

Nurses' Priorities for Perioperative Research in Africa

BACKGROUND

Mortality rates among surgical patients in Africa are double those of surgical patients in high-income countries. Internationally, there is a call to improve access to and safety of surgical and perioperative care. Perioperative research needs to be coordinated across Africa to positively impact perioperative mortality.

METHODS

The aim of this study was to determine the top 10 perioperative research priorities for perioperative nurses in Africa, using a research priority-setting process. A Delphi technique with 4 rounds was used to establish consensus on the top 10 perioperative research priorities. In the first round, respondents submitted research priorities. Similar research priorities were amalgamated into single priorities when possible. In round 2, respondents ranked the priorities using a scale from 1 to 10 (of which 1 is the first/highest priority, and 10 is the last/lowest priority). The top 20 (of 31) were determined after round 2. In round 3, respondents ranked their top 10 priorities. The final round was an online discussion to reach consensus on the top 10 perioperative research priorities.

RESULTS

A total of 17 perioperative nurses representing 12 African countries determined the top research priorities, which were: (1) strategies to translate and implement perioperative research into clinical practice in Africa, (2) creating a perioperative research culture and the tools, resources, and funding needed to conduct perioperative nursing research in Africa, (3) optimizing nurse-led postoperative pain management, (4) survey of operating theater and critical care resources, (5) perception of, and adherence to sterile field and aseptic techniques among surgeons in Africa (6) surgical staff burnout, (7) broad principles of infection control in surgical wards, (8) the role of interprofessional communication to promote clinical teamwork when caring for surgical patients, (9) effective implementation of the surgical safety checklist and measures of its impact, and (10) constituents of quality nursing care.

CONCLUSIONS

These research priorities provide the structure for an intermediate-term research agenda for perioperative research in Africa.