Brazilian nursing professionals: leadership to generate positive attitudes and behaviours

'I'm a bit of an invisible worker' - Health care and social sector students' experiences of casual and temporary agency work

OBJECTIVES

In the wake of national and global personnel shortages, it is becoming increasingly common for students to undertake casual and temporary agency work in the health care and social sectors. This phenomenon can have both advantages and disadvantages for these workers. The objective of this study was to describe health care and social sector students' experiences of such work.

METHODS

Students currently undertaking casual work in the health care and social sector in Finland were recruited (n = 28). Qualitative semi-structured interviews of these students were conducted in March to May 2021. The data were analysed using inductive content analysis.

RESULTS

Respondents reported some positive aspects of casual work. In particular, they liked the freedom to choose the workplace and working times that suited them. However, respondents' experiences were mostly negative. They perceived the induction into work as being insufficient, felt they had too few opportunities to give and receive feedback and believed they were not accepted into the working community.

CONCLUSIONS

Students who have bad experiences while undertaking causal work in the health care and social sectors may develop an aversion towards working in those sectors after graduating. In order to ensure the sectors are attractive to graduates, casual student workers' induction and experience of the workplace must be improved.

Leadership to promote patient safety culture in public hospitals managed by social health organizations

PURPOSE

This paper aims to identify the kind of internal climate leaders should offer health-care professionals to promote a patient safety culture in public hospitals managed by social health organizations in Brazil.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

Two surveys were applied to health-care professionals working at three Brazilian public hospitals. The internal climate survey reached 1,013 respondents, and the patient safety culture survey reached 1,302 participants. Both factor and regression analyses were used to analyze the study model and determine how internal climate influences patient safety culture.

FINDINGS

Results indicate that to promote a patient safety culture among health-care professionals, leaders should generate an internal climate based on trust to foster pride in working in the hospital. Possibly, the trust dimension is the most important one and must be developed to achieve job satisfaction and provide better services to patients.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS

All the hospitals studied were managed by the same Organização Social de Saúde. Due to the limited responses concerning the respondents' profiles, demographic variables were not analyzed.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

This research reveals that the trust and pride dimensions can most strongly influence a positive patient safety culture, helping hospital leaders face this huge managerial challenge of consistently delivering high standards of patient safety.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

This research studies the promotion of a patient safety culture in public hospitals managed by social health organizations, characterized by greater flexibility and autonomy in health-care management and by a greater need for accountability.

Job Involvement as a Mediating Factor Between Empowerment and Organizational Citizenship Behavior Among Clinical Instructors at Nursing Technical Institutes

Introduction

Empowerment is an important motivator for clinical instructors to develop organizational citizenship behaviors. Job engagement may serve as a moderator, amplifying the impact of empowerment on organizational citizenship behavior.

Objective

This study examines the effect of job participation as a mediator between empowerment and organizational citizenship behavior among clinical teachers at nursing technical institutes.

Methods

This cross-sectional analytical study was performed on a convenience sample of 161 clinical instructors from six technical nursing institutes connected with five Egyptian Universities. For data collection, a self-administered questionnaire, including measures for assessing job engagement, empowerment, and citizenship behavior, was employed. This ran till November 2019, starting in June.

Results

Most clinical instructors had a high level of job involvement (82%), 72.0% had high empowerment score, and 55.3% had high citizenship behavior. Empowerment, job involvement, and citizenship scores were positively correlated. The female gender predicted empowerment positively. The workplace was also a powerful predictor of job engagement and empowerment ratings. Importantly mediated the link between empowerment and citizenship behavior was occupational engagement.

Conclusions

Employment participation was a crucial moderator of the link between autonomy and citizenship behavior. The nursing institutes' administration needs to empower clinical instructors with more autonomy and participation in decision making through psychological support and fair salaries. It is proposed that an additional study be conducted to assess the efficacy of empowerment initiatives as a pathway to job engagement, resulting in higher civic behavior among clinical instructors.

The role of empowering leadership and psychological empowerment on nurses’ work engagement and affective commitment

Purpose

This study aims to investigate to role of empowering leadership and psychological empowerment on nurses' work engagement and affective commitment.

Design/methodology/approach

Self-administered questionnaire data from 231 nurses working in a university hospital in Saudi Arabia were analysed using a cross-sectional research design using structural equation modelling (SEM) to assess the relationship between empowering leadership (EL), affective commitment (AC) and work engagement (WE) while testing for the mediating role of psychological empowerment (PE).

Findings

SEM analysis demonstrated that EL significantly relates to AC. AC similarly significantly relates to WE. Further, the results showed that PE substantially mediates the relationship between EL and WE. There is no significant direct relationship found between EL and WE.

Practical implications

The study findings are essential for nursing managers. They illustrate that nurses become more committed to their organisation and, in return, more engaged with their work when they receive EL. Therefore, nursing managers could train their leaders to practice EL as increased WE has been found to result in other positive work attitudes such as reduced turnover intention.

Originality/value

This study corroborates the relationships between EL, AC and WE, as well as the mediating role of PE. However, this research is unique as the long-established relationship between EL and WE was not supported. It shows that the propositions of leader-member exchange theory may not hold for unique non-Western contexts, in this case, Saudi Arabia.

A concept analysis of role ambiguity experienced by hospital nurses providing bedside nursing care

The concept of role ambiguity, despite its wide application in nursing research, lacks a clear definition and conceptualization, resulting in inconsistencies about how it is defined, operationalized, and applied in research. The purpose of this paper was to analyze and define the concept of role ambiguity among hospital nurses providing nursing care, using the concept analysis method developed by Walker and Avant. The three defining attributes of role ambiguity were lack of information (information deficiency), lack of clarity, and unpredictability. Antecedents included lack of clear role definitions, lack of education/training, communication problems, supervisory behaviors and support, organizational culture, practice environment conditions, experience, group cohesiveness, and preferred work setting. The consequences of role ambiguity included increased stress, lack of organizational commitment, job dissatisfaction, burnout, and increased intent to leave. This concept analysis provides a clear conceptual definition to better understand role ambiguity among hospital nurses along with implications for nurse leaders, educators, clinicians, and researchers to support nurses and guide future research. This paper further emphasizes the importance of nurse-manager relationships in reducing the experience of role ambiguity among hospital nurses.

Predictive power of training design on employee performance: an empirical approach in Pakistan's health sector

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the role of training design on employee performance in the health sector of Pakistan.

Design/methodology/approach

This cross-sectional study applies random sampling to select respondents among Pakistan's trained health nurses. The study uses a survey questionnaire as a primary tool to collect the data. The 306 completed questionnaires form the study sample, with their data analyzed to find the results.

Findings

Structural equation modeling shows the positive and significant roles of training content and learning style on employee performance. In contrast, the study finds the role of the trainer on nurses' employee performance in Pakistan to be insignificant.

Practical implications

This research generally makes a valuable contribution to the training literature, particularly in Pakistan. Employers need to provide more training programs to reduce the cost of recruiting and training new staff members. Furthermore, the study recommends the provision of feedback to employees after training so they become aware of areas where they can improve their performance. This study's findings warrant consideration in the current training and development environment, and by policymakers and health sector planners of the Pakistani government.

Originality/value

This research study will help researchers to fill the gap in the international investigation by testing the training design and performance factors.

Potencialidades e limitações da atuação do enfermeiro no Centro Parto Normal

RESUMO Objetivo Conhecer as potencialidades e limitações da atuação do enfermeiro no Centro de Parto Normal (CPN). Método abordagem qualitativa, do tipo exploratório e descritivo, realizado em 2018, com seis enfermeiras atuantes em CPN intra-hospitalar público na região metropolitana de Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil. A coleta das informações ocorreu por meio de entrevista individual, com análise a partir dos pressupostos da sociologia das profissões, com foco nos temas: conhecimento e autonomia; credencialismo; divisão do trabalho; mercado de trabalho e quadro de valores. Resultado A atuação do enfermeiro no CPN potencializa as boas práticas para o parto e nascimento, bem como amplia a importância e visibilidade deste profissional no cuidado materno-infantil. O cuidado clínico e a gestão emergem como foco da ação do enfermeiro no CPN. No entanto, mesmo com a indução do Estado para essa atuação, ainda há a necessidade de reconhecimento das competências e autonomia do enfermeiro no cuidado obstétrico por outros profissionais. Conclusão e implicações para a prática Há desafios que precisam ser superados como a ampliação da autonomia e do respeito ao credenciamento do enfermeiro para atuação no CPN e a harmonização entre a gestão do processo de trabalho e gestão do cuidado clínico por este profissional.