Shift-Based Emotional Stress Reactions in Emergency Nurses After Traumatizing Events

Prepandemic Mental Health and Well-being: Differences Within the Health Care Workforce and the Need for Targeted Resources

BACKGROUND

Occupational stress and diminished well-being among health care workers were concerning even before the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic exacerbated existing stressors and created new challenges for this workforce. Research on the mental health of health care workers has focused on physicians and nurses, with less attention to other occupations.

METHODS

To assess pre-coronavirus disease mental health and well-being among workers in multiple health care occupations, we used 2017 to 2019 data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

RESULTS

Across the health care workforce, insufficient sleep (41.0%) and diagnosed depression (18.9%) were the most common conditions reported. Counselors had the highest prevalence of diagnosed depression. Health care support workers had elevated prevalences for most adverse health conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

Ensuring a robust health care workforce necessitates identifying and implementing effective occupation-specific prevention, intervention, and mitigation strategies that address organizational and personal conditions adversely affecting mental health.

How emergency nurses cope and motivate themselves to sustain their caring work: An integrative literature review

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of this integrative review was to assess how emergency nurses cope and motivate themselves to sustain their caring work.

BACKGROUND

The need to enhance sustainability of the workforce creates a demand to consolidate contemporary evidence related to emergency nurses' motivations, how they cope and sustain themselves for caring work.

DESIGN AND METHODS

The integrative literature review informed by Whittemore and Knafl involved searching four databases, which yielded 977 published research papers (2008-2021). A total of 33 studies met the inclusion and quality assessment criteria. The PRISMA checklist for review was followed.

RESULTS

No studies addressing all three areas (motivations, coping and caring sustainability) together were identified. Integration of evidence from quantitative and qualitative research was achieved in three categories: (1) emergency nurses' motivations to sustain their work, (2) emergency nurses' coping strategies and (3) sustaining care as emergency nurses.

CONCLUSION

To sustain themselves in caring work, emergency nurses need to be intrinsically and extrinsically motivated and know how to cope effectively with stressors and work demands. There is need for research examining the relationships between these aspects of emergency nursing work.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

To ensure the sustainability of emergency nurses' work and careers understanding of the factors that influence and sustain their motivations and coping strategies is important for nurses and their clinical leaders and managers.