The Quality of the Supervisor-Nurse Relationship and Its Influence on Nurses' Job Satisfaction

Characteristics and Activities of Nurses in Expanded Roles Employed in Swiss Nursing Homes: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND

As the number of nursing home residents with multiple healthcare needs grows, the demand for nursing expertise increases. The implementation of new care models involving nurses with expanded roles is crucial for ensuring quality care in nursing homes.

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the characteristics and activities of nurses employed in nursing homes in expanded roles and the factors associated with variation in the activities performed.

METHODS

This multicentre cross-sectional survey in Switzerland collected data from a convenience sample of 118 nursing homes between September 2018 and October 2019. From a subsample of 62 nursing homes, we analysed the characteristics and activities of 104 nurses in expanded roles. Associations between the activities performed and the educational background of the nurses in expanded roles, their direct supervisors' positions and the presence of physicians in the nursing homes were examined.

RESULTS

Most Registered Nurses in expanded roles were diploma educated (48%), with fewer having a bachelor's (35%) or master's degree (17%). Overall, direct clinical practice and guidance and coaching activities were conducted monthly to weekly; consultation, evidence-based practice, collaboration and ethical decision-making activities were conducted monthly. We saw variations where a higher educational background was associated with more frequent evidence-based practice activities (z = 3.47, p < 0.001), and if direct supervisors were ward managers, nurses in expanded roles worked more frequently below their scope of practice (z = 4.10, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

This is the first study to use Hamric's integrative Advanced Practice Nursing model to examine the activities of nurses in expanded roles in nursing homes. We found considerable variation in their activities, where nursing homes seem to adapt their roles to their educational background and the local context.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Our findings show the importance of clarifying role expectations for Registered Nurses in expanded roles, allowing them to practice at the top of the licence to meet residents' complex healthcare needs.

Leadership and physiotherapy: A scoping review

Questions

The challenges faced by healthcare organizations require effective leaders. Leadership has been extensively studied in medicine and nursing, but it is limited in physiotherapy. The objective of this study is to know and analyze the published research on the characteristics of leadership in physiotherapy.

Design

A scoping review was conducted following the PRISMA extension guidelines. MEDLINE, The Cochrane Library, PEDro, Embase, CINAHL, Web Of Science and Scopus databases were reviewed between 01/01/2000 and 30/06/2022.All quantitative studies addressing the characteristics of leadership in physiotherapy were selected. Data extraction was performed using a table including author, year of publication, country of origin, title, objective, measurement instrument, sample and main findings.

Data synthesis

The results obtained were framed within the framework for the study of leadership designed by Bolman and Deal.

Results

Eight studies were selected. The characteristics most valued or used by physiotherapists are communication, desire for continuous learning and improvement, credibility and professionalism.

Conclusion

Leadership is very important for physiotherapists, and for physiotherapy, as profession they consider it very important to have vision and to lead change. Communication skills are the most highly regarded characteristic.

Explainable prediction of node labels in multilayer networks: a case study of turnover prediction in organizations

In real-world classification problems, it is important to build accurate prediction models and provide information that can improve decision-making. Decision-support tools are often based on network models, and this article uses information encoded by social networks to solve the problem of employer turnover. However, understanding the factors behind black-box prediction models can be challenging. Our question was about the predictability of employee turnover, given information from the multilayer network that describes collaborations and perceptions that assess the performance of organizations that indicate the success of cooperation. Our goal was to develop an accurate prediction procedure, preserve the interpretability of the classification, and capture the wide variety of specific reasons that explain positive cases. After a feature engineering, we identified variables with the best predictive power using decision trees and ranked them based on their added value considering their frequent co-occurrence. We applied the Random Forest using the SMOTE balancing technique for prediction. We calculated the SHAP values to identify the variables that contribute the most to individual predictions. As a last step, we clustered the sample based on SHAP values to fine-tune the explanations for quitting due to different background factors.

Factors Related to Nurse Satisfaction with Supervisor Leadership

The satisfaction of nurses with the leadership of their supervisors exerts a positive association with their job satisfaction. This study identified factors associated with nurse satisfaction with supervisor leadership and developed a model of causal relationships based on social exchange theory. A satisfaction scale was developed to measure how nurses felt about the leadership of their supervisor, which also assessed the validity and reliability using a cross-sectional descriptive survey questionnaire administered to nurses working in a teaching hospital in northern Taiwan. A total of 607 valid questionnaires were returned. Structural equation modeling was used to test the theoretical model of this study. Only questions that were scored above 3 were included in the scale. A total of 30 questions were placed under seven constructs of this scale upon the assessment of content validity. The results indicate that satisfaction with shift schedules, educational training, and internal communication exerted direct, significant, and positive associations with satisfaction with the supervisor leadership. Furthermore, satisfaction with policies and guidelines exerted direct, significant, and positive associations with satisfaction with internal communication and exerted indirect associations with satisfaction with supervisor leadership through internal communication. In particular, satisfaction with shift schedules and internal communication were most significantly associated with satisfaction with supervisor leadership. The results of this study offer a reference for hospital management and emphasize focusing on the arrangement of nurse shifts in all departments. The establishment of diverse communication channels can enhance the degree of nurse satisfaction with supervisor leadership.

Organizational support and perceived environment impact on quality of care and job satisfaction: a study with Pakistani nurses

Purpose

Referring to the theory of organizational empowerment, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of organizational support and perceived environment on quality of care and job satisfaction, with organizational commitment as a mediator for the first variable.

Design/methodology/approach

This study employed a cross-sectional research design and data was collected from seven private and public sector hospitals in Pakistan, involving 352 nurses on a voluntary basis through a self-administered survey.

Findings

The results showed that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between organizational support and job satisfaction with the quality of care. Moreover, the perceived environment has an impact on job satisfaction and quality of care.

Originality/value

Healthcare service quality seems strictly dependent on the perceived quality of care and job satisfaction among healthcare workers. Theoretical and practical implications for policymakers and HR management are discussed.

Application of a Hybrid Multi-Criterion Decision-Making Model for Evaluation and Improvement of Nurses' Job Satisfaction

Background

The global shortage and turnover of nurses is a current challenge. Past studies have shown that nurse job satisfaction may ameliorate nurse shortage. Although there are many studies on the criteria influencing nurses' job satisfaction, few have examined the causal relationships and weight of each criterion from a systematic perspective.

Objective

Identify the key criteria and causal relationships that affect nurses' job satisfaction, and help nurse leaders identify high-weight, high-impact dimensions and contextualize them for improvement.

Methods

The study developed a hybrid multi-criterion decision-making model, which incorporated the McCloskey/Mueller satisfaction 13-item scale (MMSS-13), and the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory and the Importance-Performance Analysis methods the model was used to analyze key factors of nurse satisfaction and their interrelationships based on the experience of 15 clinical nurse specialists.

Results

In MMSS-13's dimension level, “satisfaction with work conditions and supervisor support” (C₅) had the highest impact, and “satisfaction with salary and benefits” (C₁) had the highest weight. In criteria level, “salary” (C₁₁), “flexibility in scheduling time off” (C₂₄), “maternity leave time” (C₃₁), “opportunities for social contact after work” (C₄₁), and “your head nurse or facility manager” (C₅₁) had high influence under their corresponding dimensions. The “benefits package” (C₁₃) was the top criterion with the highest impact on MMSS-13.

Conclusions

This study assessed nurses' job satisfaction from a multidimensional perspective and revealed the causal relationships between the dimensions. It refined the assessment of nurse job satisfaction to help nurse leaders better assess nurse job satisfaction and make strategic improvements. The study found that compensation and benefits had the highest weight in nurses' job satisfaction. Meanwhile, support for family responsibilities and working conditions, and support from supervisors were the cause dimensions of job satisfaction. Among the more detailed criteria, salary, benefits package, maternity leave time, and leadership had a greater impact on nurses' job satisfaction. Nurse leaders should start with these dimensions to achieve efficient improvement of nurses' job satisfaction.