Effects of job resources factors on nurses job performance (mediating role of work engagement)

The relationship between burnout and work engagement levels of nurses and physiotherapists working during the COVID-19 pandemic period

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all health professionals worldwide. This has also influenced their working lives, affecting burnout and work engagement.

OBJECTIVE

This study aims to investigate the relationship between burnout and work engagement among nurses and physiotherapists during the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study was conducted with total 509 nurses and physiotherapists who were working at any of the private, public, or university hospitals from two large and one small cities. A Personal Introduction Form, the Maslach Burnout Scale, and the Work Engagement Scale were used in the study. Frequency, percentage, mean, and Pearson correlation analysis were used for statistical analysis. Necessary ethical approvals were taken for the research.

RESULTS

There was a significant, moderate, negative relationship between the average scores of the nurses on the vigor and devotion dimensions and the Work Engagement Scale and their average scores on emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, depersonalization dimensions and their average score on the Maslach Burnout Scale (p <  0.05). There was a significant, moderate, negative relationship between the scores of the physiotherapists on the Work Engagement Scale and its dimensions and their average scores on the Maslach Burnout Scale and its dimensions (p <  0.05).

CONCLUSION

In our study, it was found that the burnout levels of nurses and physiotherapists had an effect on their work engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. During and after the COVID-19 process, managers should take measures to reduce the burnout levels of health professionals and increase their level of work engagement.

Empathic nurses with sufficient job resources are work-engaged professionals who deliver more individualized care

AIMS

This study examined whether nurse work engagement mediated the associations of job resources (collegial support and autonomy) and a personal resource (empathy) with individualized care delivery, in both hospital and long-term care settings. We also explored potential setting-specific differences in how strongly the resources were associated with work engagement and individualized care delivery among nurses.

DESIGN

We conducted a cross-sectional study in three hospitals and two long-term care facilities.

METHODS

In total, 454 nurses completed a web-based survey including validated measures on resources (collegial support, autonomy, empathy), work engagement and individualized care delivery. Data were analysed using mediation and moderated mediation analyses.

RESULTS

In both settings, all resources were indirectly associated with individualized care delivery via work engagement. Empathy was also directly associated with individualized care delivery, and a stronger association was found in the long-term care setting than in the hospital setting.

CONCLUSION

The present study showed work engagement to mediate the associations of job resources and empathy with individualized care delivery in both hospital and long-term care settings. Individualized care delivery was furthermore directly facilitated by high levels of empathy, especially among nurses working in long-term care settings.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION AND/OR PATIENT CARE

Patients may benefit from better individualized care delivery by empathic nurses who are more work-engaged in the face of sufficient job resources in their practice environment.

IMPACT

Nurses are better able to deliver individualized care when provided with sufficient job resources (collegial support and autonomy) that support their being work-engaged professionals. Furthermore, empathic nurses also reported being able to better support patient individuality. These findings can be translated to policies of hospitals and long-term care facilities, to optimize job resources and enhance empathy and thus facilitate the support of patient individuality by nurses.

REPORTING METHOD

This study adhered to the STROBE guidelines.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

Nurses were involved in the design and data collection of the study.

The relationship between nurses' social network degree centrality and organizational citizenship behavior: The multiple mediating effects of job satisfaction and work engagement

Background

In nursing care organizations, nurses' social networks affect their behavior and play an important role in nursing practice. This study aimed to explore the relationships among social network degree centrality, job satisfaction, work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) among nurses.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey design (one-on-one investigation) was used. The study was conducted among 254 nurses working in 10 nursing units in two hospitals in China from November 2019-February 2020. The participants completed a paper questionnaire that measured social network degree centrality, job satisfaction, work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior. A structural equation model (SEM) was used to analyze the mediating effects of job satisfaction and work engagement. SPSS 22.0 and Amos 21.0 software were used, and the significance level was set at 5% for all analyses.

Results

Social network degree centrality was positively associated with job satisfaction, work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior, and job satisfaction and work engagement had significant positive relationships with organizational citizenship behavior. In addition, social network degree centrality influenced organizational citizenship behavior through the multiple mediating effects of job satisfaction and work engagement.

Conclusions

Improving job satisfaction and work engagement can boost the positive effect of social network degree centrality on OCB.

Relationship of Organizational Support, Psychological Capital, and Engagement Among Clinical Nursing Teachers

BACKGROUND

Clinical nursing teachers play a critical role in nursing education, and their engagement is important to ensure the quality of clinical teaching.

PURPOSE

To describe the level of engagement and determine the relationships among organizational support, psychological capital, and engagement among clinical nursing teachers.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 246 clinical nursing teachers, from 4 teaching hospitals in China, using a self-report questionnaire. The questionnaire measured organizational support, psychological capital, and work engagement.

RESULTS

Clinical nursing teachers reported a medium level of engagement in teaching. Both organizational support and psychological capital had positive effects on teachers' engagement. Psychological capital partially mediated the relationship between organizational support and engagement.

CONCLUSIONS

Measures to improve organizational support and psychological capital are essential to enhance the engagement among clinical nursing teachers.

Examining regulatory focus in the acceleration and deceleration of engagement and exhaustion cycles among nurses

BACKGROUND

Given that emotional exhaustion and nurse engagement have significant implications for nurse well-being and organizational performance, determining how to increase nurse engagement while reducing nurse exhaustion is of value.

PURPOSE

Resource loss and gain cycles, as theorized in conservation of resources theory, are examined using the experience of emotional exhaustion to evaluate loss cycles and work engagement to evaluate gain cycles. Furthermore, we integrate conservation of resources theory with regulatory focus theory to examine how the ways in which individuals approach work goals serves as a facilitator to the acceleration and deceleration of both of these cycles.

METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

Using data from nurses working in a hospital in the Midwest United States at six time points spanning over 2 years, we demonstrate the accumulation effects of the cycles over time using latent change score modeling.

RESULTS

We found that prevention focus was associated with the accelerated accumulation effects of emotional exhaustion and that promotion focus was associated with the accelerated accumulation effects of work engagement. Furthermore, prevention focus attenuated the acceleration of engagement, but promotion did not influence the acceleration of exhaustion.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that individual factors such as regulatory focus are key to helping nurses to better control their resource gain and loss cycles.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

We provide implications for nurse managers and health care administrators to help encourage promotion focus and suppress prevention focus in the workplace.

How nurses' job characteristics affect their self-assessed work environment in hospitals- Slovenian use of the practice environment scale of the nursing work index

BACKGROUND

Nurses' work environment influences nursing practice. Inappropriate working conditions are the result of underdeveloped workplace infrastructure, poor work organisation, inadequate education, and inappropriate staffing norms. The aim of this study was to describe and examine the predictors that affect nurses' work environment using the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI).

METHODS

The validation of the PES-NWI was made. Nurse-reported job characteristics were used as independent variables. The sample included 1,010 nurses from adult surgical and medical units at 10 Slovenian hospitals. The Nurse Forecasting (RN4CAST) protocol was used. Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the National Medical Ethics Committee.

RESULTS

The PES-NWI mean (2.64) was low, as were job and career satisfaction at 2.96 and 2.89, respectively. The PES-NWI can be explained in 48% with 'Opportunities for advancement', 'Educational opportunities', 'Satisfaction with current job', 'Professional status', 'Study leave', and 'Level of education'. A three-factor solution of PES-NWI yielded eight distinct variables.

CONCLUSIONS

The obtained average on the Nursing Work Index was one of the lowest among previously conducted surveys. Nurses should be recognized as equals in the healthcare workforce who need to be empowered to develop the profession and have career development opportunities. Inter-professional relations and equal involvement of nurses in hospital affairs are also very important.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

This is a non-intervention study - retrospectively registered.

Relationship between nurses’ psychological capital and satisfaction of elderly cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction

As a special vulnerable group, the physical and mental health of elderly cancer patients has attracted much attention. However, few studies have focused on the impact of nurses’ mental state on the mental health of elderly cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this literature gap, this study aims to explore the impact of nurses’ psychological capital on the satisfaction of elderly cancer patients. The job demands-resources model (JD-R) is used to further investigate how work engagement and job resources of nurses affect this relationship.

Methods

The questionnaire survey was used to collect data, participants included 230 elderly cancer patients and their nurses from a tertiary first-class cancer hospital in China. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was conducted with SmartPLS 3.3.9.

Results

Nurses’ psychological capital has a significant positive impact on the satisfaction of elderly cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses’ work engagement is an important mechanism for their psychological capital to affect the satisfaction of elderly cancer patients. In addition, nurses’ job resources positively moderate the relationship between their psychological capital and work engagement. The positive relationship between psychological capital and work engagement of nurses is stronger when they have abundant job resources.

Discussion

These findings suggest that healthcare organizations should take the psychological capital of medical staff as an important means to improve their competitive advantage. It can improve the quality of medical services to obtain good performance by effectively developing and managing the psychological capital of medical staff. In addition, healthcare organizations should recognize the importance of providing adequate job resources for medical staff.

Relationship between nurses' psychological capital and satisfaction of elderly cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction

As a special vulnerable group, the physical and mental health of elderly cancer patients has attracted much attention. However, few studies have focused on the impact of nurses' mental state on the mental health of elderly cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this literature gap, this study aims to explore the impact of nurses' psychological capital on the satisfaction of elderly cancer patients. The job demands-resources model (JD-R) is used to further investigate how work engagement and job resources of nurses affect this relationship.

Methods

The questionnaire survey was used to collect data, participants included 230 elderly cancer patients and their nurses from a tertiary first-class cancer hospital in China. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was conducted with SmartPLS 3.3.9.

Results

Nurses' psychological capital has a significant positive impact on the satisfaction of elderly cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses' work engagement is an important mechanism for their psychological capital to affect the satisfaction of elderly cancer patients. In addition, nurses' job resources positively moderate the relationship between their psychological capital and work engagement. The positive relationship between psychological capital and work engagement of nurses is stronger when they have abundant job resources.

Discussion

These findings suggest that healthcare organizations should take the psychological capital of medical staff as an important means to improve their competitive advantage. It can improve the quality of medical services to obtain good performance by effectively developing and managing the psychological capital of medical staff. In addition, healthcare organizations should recognize the importance of providing adequate job resources for medical staff.

Understanding Social Media Usage at Work from the Perspective of Social Capital Theory

With the pervasive use of social media (SM) in organizations, it is regarded as a relevant driver that can influence an employee’s job performance. This study fills in the gap that extends the job performance concept by discovering the role of SM in innovative performance in introducing new ideas beyond standard specifications to produce novel and valuable organizational outcomes. By adopting the social capital theory (SCT), the present study investigates the roles of social media use at work in predicting social capital (network ties, shared vision, and trust) that might promote work engagement and subsequently affect employees’ innovative job performance. The data was collected through an online survey, and 291 Malaysian employees participated. The partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) technique was applied in data analysis for the measurement model and structural model used in this study. Findings show that SM use at work significantly predicts network ties, shared vision, and trust. Besides, network ties and trust positively promoted work engagement except for shared vision. Subsequently, work engagement was associated with innovative job performance. This study provides theoretical and practical implications for extending knowledge, as well as mitigating plans and efforts to resolve employees’ performance concerning the issues of SM use at work.

Job performance in healthcare: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Healthcare organisations face major challenges to keep healthcare accessible and affordable. This requires them to transform and improve their performance. To do so, organisations must influence employee job performance. Therefore, it is necessary to know what the key dimensions of job performance in healthcare are and how these dimensions can be improved. This study has three aims. The first aim is to determine what key dimensions of job performance are discussed in the healthcare literature. The second aim is to determine to which professionals and healthcare organisations these dimensions of job performance pertain. The third aim is to identify factors that organisations can use to affect the dimensions of job performance in healthcare.

METHODS

A systematic review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. The authors searched Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Books, which resulted in the identification of 763 records. After screening 92 articles were included.

RESULTS

The dimensions - task, contextual, and adaptative performance and counterproductive work behaviour - are reflected in the literature on job performance in healthcare. Adaptive performance and counterproductive work behaviour appear to be under-researched. The studies were conducted in different healthcare organisations and pertain to a variety of healthcare professionals. Organisations can affect job performance on the macro-, meso-, and micro-level to achieve transformation and improvement.

CONCLUSION

Based on more than 90 studies published in over 70 journals, the authors conclude that job performance in healthcare can be conceptualised into four dimensions: task, contextual and adaptive performance, and counterproductive work behaviour. Generally, these dimensions correspond with the dimensions discussed in the job performance literature. This implies that these dimensions can be used for further research into job performance in healthcare. Many healthcare studies on job performance focus on two dimensions: task and contextual performance. However, adaptive performance, which is of great importance in constantly changing environments, is under-researched and should be examined further in future research. This also applies to counterproductive work behaviour. To improve job performance, interventions are required on the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels, which relate to governance, leadership, and individual skills and characteristics.

The impact of nurses' sense of security on turnover intention during the normalization of COVID-19 epidemic: The mediating role of work engagement

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 pandemic has entered a normal stage in China. During this phase, nurses have an increased workload and mental health issues that threaten the sense of security. Poor sense of security may have a considerable impact on turnover intention through low work engagement. It was challenging to maintain the nurse workforce. Fewer studies have been conducted on the effect of nurses' sense of security on their turnover intention in that phase. This study aimed to investigate the interrelationship between nurses' sense of security, work engagement, and turnover intention during the normalization phase of the epidemic in China and to explore the impact of sense of security on turnover intention.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted from September 2020 to May 2021 in Guangdong Province, China. Data were collected online using Sense of Security Scale for Medical Staff (SSS-MS), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), and Turnover Intention Scale. Pearson's correlation analysis was used to assess the correlation between sense of security, work engagement, and turnover intention. The hypothesis model used multiple linear regression models and the bootstrapping procedure to analyze the relationship between these variables.

RESULTS

Data were collected from 2,480 nurses who met the inclusion criteria. Over half(64.5%) of nurses had a high and very high turnover intention. After controlling the demographic and working variables, sense of security (β = 0.291, P < 0.001) had a direct positive effect on work engagement. Sense of security (β = -0.447, P < 0.001) and work engagement (β = -0.484, P < 0.001) had a direct negative effect on turnover intention. Sense of security and all of its components were associated with turnover intention through the partially mediating effects of work engagement.

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses' turnover intention was at a high level during the normalization phase of the epidemic. Sense of security and its components act as positive resources to reduce turnover intention by improving work engagement. Policy makers and managers may pay attention to the needs of nurses' sense of security, which may be a new perspective to help managers reduce their turnover intention and stabilize the nurse team.

Effects of nurses' individual, professional and work environment characteristics on job performance

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to examine the effects of nurses' individual, professional and work environment characteristics on their job performance levels.

BACKGROUND

Nurses' job performance is important in the effective and efficient provision of health care.

DESIGN

A descriptive, cross-sectional study. The STROBE guidelines were used in this study.

METHODS

The sample of this descriptive, correlational and cross-sectional study comprised 370 nurses working at one private and two university hospitals in Turkey. A demographic information form, the Practice Work Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) and the Nursing Job Performance Scale (JPS) were used to collect the data. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Spearman's correlation and multiple linear (stepwise) regression.

RESULTS

There was a significant and positive correlation between the scores on the PES-NWI and the JPS (r: 0.65, p < .05). Regression analysis showed that nurses' job performance was affected by five variables (R² : 59%, p < .05, Durbin-Watson: 2.06).

CONCLUSION

The results of the study show that three sub-dimensions of the PES-NWI (nursing foundations for quality of care; staffing and resource adequacy; nurse manager abilities, leadership and support for nurses), colleague solidarity and education level were important factors affecting job performance.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

The job performance of nurses is a priority issue in delivering quality healthcare services. Further efforts need to be pursued to nurse managers ensure a positive work environment to increase their nurses' job performance.

Identification of drivers of employee engagement in Indian power companies

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend the scope of social exchange theory (SET) to explore employee engagement and test its application in the context of Indian power companies. The study also attempts to explore the antecedents of employee engagement. This study includes organizational culture and three trusts, that is co-worker trust, supervisor trust and organizational trust whose presence in the organization influences employee engagement.

Design/methodology/approach

The study includes a sample of 812 executives who represent three major functions of the Indian power sector, that is power generation, power transmission and power distribution. The relationships between constructs are evaluated using structural equation modeling.

Findings

The findings of this study indicate that four resources in the organization influence employee engagement in different ways. Three constructs representing co-worker trust, supervisor trust and organizational trust partially mediate the relation between organizational culture and employee engagement. This study also compares the engagement levels of the employees from three power companies.

Research limitations/implications

This study is focused on companies operating in only the government sector.

Practical implications

Ensuring engagement from employees for the critical power sector is expected to support the development of the HR practices in this sector. Identification of sector-specific resources is expected to aid both employees and policymakers from the organization.

Social implications

This study assists the policy makers in the organization by showcasing the importance of organizational culture, interpersonal and organizational trusts and their impact on employee engagement.

Originality/value

Resource theory explains why certain resources in the workplace are exchanged for employee engagement. This study extends theories of engagement as well as SET and examines their application as employee engagement in the context of executives from Indian power companies. This understanding will aid the practitioners and researchers to further their understanding of employee engagement.

Supervisor Support and Affective Organizational Commitment: The Mediator Role of Work Engagement

The aim of the study was to verify the mediator role of work engagement between supervisor social support and affective organizational commitment. A cross-sectional and correlational study using questionnaires was conducted. We obtained a convenience sample of 267 participants from 403 nurses from two public hospitals (66.25% response rate). Participants were required to be registered nurses without a supervisor position and to have worked for at least 1 year in the same ward in a public hospital. The mediator role of work engagement was examined using path analysis and bootstrapping method (bias-corrected confidence intervals). Results showed that affective organizational commitment was positively and significantly predicted by supervisor support, vigor, and absorption. Supervisor support had both a direct effect and an indirect effect, through vigor and absorption, on affective organizational commitment. Social support from supervisors allows an increase both in nurses' engagement and their desire to remain in the organization.