Job Insecurity in Nursing: A Bibliometric Analysis

The relationship between unemployment anxiety, job satisfaction and migration attitude among the next generation of Turkish nurses: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

The global nursing shortage is complex and multifaceted. Despite the policy of increasing the number of nurses, concerns about the sustainability of the nursing workforce in Turkey continue.

AIM

To evaluate the relationship between unemployment anxiety, job satisfaction, and migration attitudes among Turkish nursing candidates.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted with 1100 nursing candidates between April and June 2022. The data gathered from the "Personal Form, Job Satisfaction, and Brain Drain Attitudes Scale" were analyzed using logistic regression and decision tree analysis.

RESULTS

Of the participants, 67.1% were female, and the mean age was 22.6 ± 1.7 years. Being male (OR = 1.317, 95% Cl 0.994-1.743) having a low income (OR = 1.754, 95% Cl 1.334-2.306), feeling insecure about the future (OR = 2.340, 95% Cl 1.312-4.175), expecting a lower wage than desired (OR = 2.015, 95% Cl 1.132-3.586), and employment precariousness (OR = 1.786, 95% Cl 1.355-2.353) increase the possibility of experiencing high unemployment anxiety. On the other hand, family support for living abroad (OR = 0.579, 95% CI 0.408-0.821) and job satisfaction (OR = 0.799, 95% CI 0.692-0.921) decrease unemployment anxiety (p < 0.05). According to the results of the decision tree analysis, the host country's pull factors are the best predictors of the nursing candidates' intention to work abroad as nurses (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The increasing prevalence of unemployment anxiety and migration tendencies among nursing candidates requires the evaluation of policies aimed at increasing the number of nursing graduates in Turkey.

Influence of Job Insecurity on Musculoskeletal Disorders: A Mediation Model with Nursing Aides

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders are some of the most prevalent diseases in the world. They have a multifactorial aetiology encompassing ergonomic and psychosocial risk factors. The aim of this study is to analyse the way job insecurity and physical workload are linked to musculoskeletal disorders, as well as the mediating role other psychosocial work risks can have on this potential relationship. A parallel mediation path regression analysis was designed using a sample of 457 nursing aides. The influence job insecurity and physical workload has on the onset of musculoskeletal symptoms together with the variables which mediate this relationship were examined. The results prove that both independent variables explain the onset of musculoskeletal symptoms in these professionals. The influence exerted by job insecurity is mediated by the social support received at work and the demands of the job. However, when analysing the physical workload, the social support received at work is not relevant as a mediator in this relationship. Job insecurity and physical workload are significant variables on the occurrence of musculoskeletal symptoms. The data obtained supports the need to focus on physical and psychosocial factors in order to prevent these disorders.

The mediating role of resilience between perceived social support and sense of security in medical staff following the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study

Background

The COVID-19 pandemic not only posed a serious threat to public life and health but also had a serious impact on people's mental health, especially that of medical staff. Perceived social support is an important factor in one's sense of security.

Objective

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the goal is to explore the potential mediating role of resilience in the relationship between perceived social support and the sense of security of Chinese medical personnel.

Methods

The multi-stage proportionally stratified convenience sampling method was adopted to select 4,076 medical professionals from 29 hospitals in Guangdong Province between September 2020 and October 2020. The Sense of Security Scale for Medical Staff, the Chinese version of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and the Perceived Social Support Scale were employed in this study. For statistical analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM), the SPSS 23.0 and Amos 24.0 software packages were used. Regression analysis was used to select the control variables to be included in the SEM. SEM analysis was conducted to verify the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between perceived social support and a sense of security.

Results

Pearson's correlation analysis showed that perceived social support and resilience were positively associated with a sense of security (correlation coefficients range from 0.350 to 0.607, P < 0.01), and perceived social support (correlation coefficients range from 0.398 to 0.589, P < 0.01) was positively associated with resilience. Structural equation modeling revealed that resilience played a partial mediating role in the association between perceived social support and a sense of security (60.3% of the effect of perceived social support on security was direct, and 39.7% of the effect was mediated by resilience).

Conclusions

Hospital managers should make efforts to develop resilience. Interventions based on resilience should be developed to enhance the perception of social support and strengthen one's sense of security.

Sequence analysis of the combinations of work shifts and absences in health care - comparison of two years of administrative data

BACKGROUND

In health care, the shift work is arranged as irregular work shifts to provide operational hours for 24/7 care. We aimed to investigate working hour trends and turnover in health care via identification of time-related sequences of work shifts and absences among health care employees. The transitions between the work shifts (i.e., morning, day, evening, and night shifts), and absences (days off and other leaves) over time were analyzed and the predictors of change in irregular shift work were quantified.

METHODS

A longitudinal cohort study was conducted using employer-owned payroll-based register data of objective and day-to-day working hours and absences of one hospital district in Finland from 2014 to 2019 (n = 4931 employees). The working hour data included start and end of work shifts, any kind of absence from work (days off, sickness absence, parental leave), and employee's age, and sex. Daily work shifts and absences in 2014 and 2019 were used in sequence analysis. Generalized linear model was used to estimate how each identified sequence cluster was associated with sex and age.

RESULTS

We identified four sequence clusters: "Morning" (60% in 2014 and 56% in 2019), "Varying shift types" (22% both in 2014 and 2019), "Employee turnover" (13% in 2014 and 3% in 2019), and "Unstable employment (5% in 2014 and 19% in 2019). The analysis of transitions from one cluster to another between 2014 and 2019 indicated that most employees stayed in the same clusters, and most often in the "Varying shift types" (60%) and "Morning" (72%) clusters. The majority of those who moved, moved to the cluster "Morning" in 2019 from "Employee turnover" (43%), "Unstable employment" (46%) or "Varying shift types" (21%). Women were more often than men in the clusters "Employee turnover" and "Unstable employment", whereas older employees were more often in "Morning" and less often in the other cluster groups.

CONCLUSION

Four clusters with different combinations of work shifts and absences were identified. The transition rates between work shifts and absences with five years in between indicated that most employees stayed in the same clusters. The likelihood of a working hour pattern characterized by "Morning" seems to increase with age.

Occupational Stress and Personality in Medical Doctors from Romania

Occupational stress amongst doctors has been intensively studied as doctors are exposed to several stress factors daily. The purpose of this study was to investigate if there are associations between personality dimensions and the factors that generate stress at work. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 280 medical doctors from Romania between February 2021 and September 2021 who were evaluated using the DECAS and ASSET Scales. Our results showed that the agreeableness and emotional stability dimensions of personality, according to the Big Five model, were statistically associated with work relationships (A p < 0.0001; ES p = 0.0005), work-life balance (A p = 0.008; ES p = 0.01), overload (A p = 0.01; ES p = 0.001), job security (A p < 0.0001; ES p = 0.002), job control (A p = 0.001; ES p = 0.009), resources and communication (A p = 0.0002; ES p < 0.0001), and job conditions (A p = 0.005; ES p = 0.03). The conscientiousness dimension was statistically associated with job control (p = 0.02). Doctors from different specialties experienced stress differently, with psychiatrists and doctors from preclinical specialties reporting the lowest levels of stress. Internists and surgeons reported higher levels of stress. This study showed that the dimensions of agreeableness and emotional stability were both associated with variables indicative of the level of stress felt at work.

Taking stock and moving forward: A textual statistics approach to synthesizing four decades of job insecurity research

We collected the abstracts of manuscripts examining job insecurity published between 1984 and 2019 and carried out a textual analysis to investigate the defining clusters, their development over time, and whether there was evidence of siloed knowledge. Results suggested that job insecurity research seems to be fragmented into disciplinary foci (organizational psychology, public health, economics, and sociology). Further analyses on the organizational psychology corpus, revealed 25 topics with distinct temporal trajectories: some were increasing (analytical advances and differentiation between cognitive and affective job insecurity) while other were decreasing (scale development). The remaining abstracts revealed 15 topics with more stable trajectories. Based on these results, we identified five areas for future organizational research on job insecurity: the changing labor market, the need to better understand the experiences of marginalized workers and non-work outcomes of job insecurity, the added-value of qualitative research, and the need to critically evaluate our assumptions as researchers. Plain Language Summary Since the paper by Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt, research on job insecurity has burgeoned. Taking an interdisciplinary perspective, we collected the abstracts of all peer-reviewed manuscripts examining job insecurity published between 1984 and 2019 and carried out a textual analysis using the Latent Dirichlet Allocation and the Reinert method to investigate (a) the defining clusters of job insecurity research, (b) the development of such clusters over time, and (c) whether there was any evidence of siloed knowledge. Results suggested that indeed job insecurity research seems to be fragmented into four main disciplinary foci (organizational psychology, public health, economics, and sociology) with relatively little cross-fertilization. We conducted further analyses of the abstracts stemming from organizational research on job insecurity, revealing 25 topics with distinct temporal trajectories (e.g., “hot” topics including the increasing use of advanced analytic techniques and differentiation between cognitive and affective job insecurity) and “cold” topics including the development of job insecurity measures). The remaining abstracts revealed 15 topics with more stable research interests over time (e.g., a continued reliance on appraisal theories). Based on these results, we identified five areas for future organizational research on job insecurity based on: the changing labor market, the need to better understand the experiences of marginalized workers and non-work outcomes of job insecurity, the added-value of qualitative research, and finally the need to critically evaluate our assumptions as researchers.

Insecure Employment Contracts during the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Need for Participation in Policy Making

Job security influences the ability of nurses to provide high-quality nursing care. The Iranian health system has always faced nursing shortages, and the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened this situation. Although nurses have been labelled 'heroes' across the globe, many of them have been hired using insecure employment contracts. This commentary aims to describe issues surrounding job contracts for Iranian nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic and discusses how the current situation can be improved. Iranian nurses are at the frontline of the fight against COVID-19 and need to receive better support in terms of job security and dignity. They should participate more in policymaking activities to improve their job condition and prevent the development and implementation of the short-term and insecure job contracts that lead to job insecurity.

Mapping the evidence-based practice research field in nursing from 1995 to 2021: A bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND

Evidence-based nursing and its practices are increasing rapidly in the health and nursing literature. A holistic image of evidence-based nursing research is needed to address evidence-based studies and available information on nursing.

AIM

The aim of this study was to evaluate evidence-based nursing-related research with bibliometric analysis in order to provide a structured macroscopic overview of its features and advances.

METHODS

A bibliometric analysis of 4,159 publications from 1995 to 2021 was performed to map the literature of evidence-based nursing studies and assess the structure of the scientific community. The studies' publication output and growth trend, authors and collaborations, publishing journals, terms, current trends, subject categories, global distribution and collaboration, and the authors' average number of citations were all assessed.

RESULTS

It was found that the number of evidence-based nursing publications increased until 2016, reaching the publication peak (n = 369), after which they began to decline. Most studies on the topic (n = 543) have been published in the journal Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing. Evidence-based knowledge, dissemination, implementation, implementation barriers, and implementation and training curricula in particular fields have all evolved over time as the key concepts of research. The United States (6,218), Australia (1,247), and England (790) are the three nations with the highest number of publications. On the other hand, it is seen that the subject has yet to be discussed in a few developing or underdeveloped countries.

CONCLUSIONS

In the last 12 years, evidence-based nursing has been a comprehensive area of research. In comparison with the research areas in its field, it can be speculated that it has a more practical focus. It was determined that the authors' keywords primarily began with research implementation, practice development, and knowledge utilization over time, and then evolved to specific areas, educational areas, process applications, and important current topics such as Covid19.