Intention to leave the nursing profession

BACKGROUND: The NEXT Study (Nurses' Exit Study) was initiated in 10 European countries in order to shed light on nurses' working conditions and reasons of shortage. OBJECTIVES: The study objective was to determine organisation and psychosocial conditions that lead to premature departure from the nursing profession. METHODS: The questionnaire we used took into account aspects such as work history, work demands and organisation, career prospectives and individual resources. This article describes steps related to the construction and validation of the questionnaire and sampling methods. Preliminary results are also reported. Data analysis, performed in relation to the intention to leave the nursing profession, showed the distinctiveness of the situation in Italy compared to other European countries. RESULTS: Conditions related to intention to leave are multifaceted, but they can be summarized as inadequacy of facilities to support the family needs of staff low level of trust in official structures, together with poor support by colleagues and superiors, work overload, and lack of independence at work--although the latter is foreseen in current legislation--and scant career and development possibilities. CONCLUSIONS: These results confirm the existence of a difficult situation, although certain legislative changes are aimed at solving these problems.     

Gender representations and morality in the nursing profession

This text is part of a dialogue between the authorserlating to two research projects: one on "The professional ambiguities, work conditions and the citizenship of nurses--a comparative study in the Federal District and S?o Paulo" and the other on "The impact of work conditions on the nurses in the Hospital S?o Paulo as to sexual and reproductive life". Nursing occupies a singular place in the health professions. Is is differentiated by numeric importance as well as by a professional practice which is almost exclusively feminine. Culturally, to care is attributed as a woman's task (nurse, mother teacher, social worker, etc.); to treat is a man's task (doctor, father, provider, etc.) The dichotomy between caring and treating denies other conflicts, relations of power, and of hierarchies established in the professional practice of nursing. These conflicts may be associated with: a) the founding myth of the origin of nursing, generator of a morality and a competence which condition htis professional practice; b) feminity, mothering, the administration of intimacy and body care, that is, the social representations of nursing with respect to gender; c) the androcentric character of power relations and those of sexuality which subsume the professional space of nursing.     

Work-home conflict in the European nursing profession

This study investigated predictors of the work-home conflict among registered nurses (n = 27,603) in eight European countries. Two scales were used to assess work-family conflict (WFC) and family-work conflict (FWC). Based on a distinction of time- and strain-based and individual factors for WFC, bivariate correlations and multiple linear regression analysis were computed. The relationship between WFC and intention to leave the nursing profession was also analyzed. Quantitative demands indicating intensity of work, regularity of working time, and being pressured to work overtime were the dominating predictors for WFC, explaining 13-23% of the observed variance. The association between WFC and intention to leave the nursing profession was pronounced in all countries except one. Most European countries lack qualified nurses. Attempts to retain nurses in their profession should take into consideration the WFC, the regularity of working time in particular, and overtime issues.     

The nursing profession in the 21st century

The present article presents the sociological analysis of the nursing profession, focussing the specificities of the profession on the basis of the component elements of a profession, according to the theoretical system of the sociology of professions. At the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the new millennium, nursing faces crucial questions for the profession, which bring back the need to restructure the strategic considerations that make up the political agenda of the nursing profession. Specific knowledge, professional qualification, particularities of the work process, monopoly of the professional exercise, and the configuration of the hierarchy of the nursing team are some of the items dealt within this article. As one of the essential professions in the health area, nursing needs to reach the next century with a new perspective, knowing how and in which conditions it will develop in a context of paradigmatic changes. Considering this new context, a political agenda for nursing professionals will have to contemplate the several aspects that make up a profession, that is, specific knowledge, exclusive labor market, form of organization, among others.     

Burnout in nursing workers: relationship between nursing work and workers' health

The study aims the understanding of the process health-illness, as it is experienced by nursing workers in the acting of its work, being bases in the social determination of that process. It evidences the particularities of the relationship between labor and health of a concrete reality. The adopted methodology permitted to establish the link between the valorization process, work process, loads and strain. This relationship of determination permit to show the unhealthy profile of those nursing workers. The sharp accidents, bones, muscles and joint diseases are characteristics damages of in this profile.     

History of the legislation for the nursing profession in Brazil

This article outlines the contribution of the Brazilian Association of Nursing (ABEn) in the study, discussion and approval of laws and regulations that have significant impact on the nursing profession. It points out that ABEn has always had an active, pacific and accurate way of working. It emphasizes that the association has dealt with de law making-body and executive members of the government, based on technical arguments and secondary data in order to comply with the nursing professional's needs.     

Reflections on nursing teaching and students' first contact with the profession

Nursing teaching has been characterized by constant discussions on pedagogical proposals and implementation of curricular changes. The aim of this study was to reflect on nursing students' experience related to their first contacts with the profession, considering traditional perspectives and current tendencies that imprint values and attitudes in learning and practice. Nowadays, the complexity of human beings and the environment they live in is considered within a biopsychosocial, economic and cultural context, constituting resources that allow for the formation of competent professionals in order to deal with the challenges of the XXIst century. Thus, nursing schools have to follow a teaching philosophy to form trained people to attend to local and regional demands and are socially committed to change. What is aimed for is participative learning, in which teacher and student, articulated in the knowledge improvement process, do not forget about humanitarian views.     

The exposure of the nursing profession in online and print media

Objective

to describe the coverage of news concerning the nursing profession in the Portuguese media: informative sites on the Internet and in print media.

Method

a total of 1,271 health news items were collected in September and October of 2011 (956 online news items and 325 news items originating from the press review of the Portuguese Order of Nurses). Statistical analysis was used to characterize the variables.

Results

nurses were the sources of information in 6.6% of cases, suggesting limited media exposure. The health news collected is characterized by a production based on limited information sources, that is, male and official sources, on information disseminated by news agencies focused on economic and political issues in the health field.

Conclusion

the presence of nurses in the news concerning nursing health is reduced. We suggest that nurses develop public communication skills to disseminate the importance of their profession in society and their relationship with the media.     

突出护理专业特色,加强应用解剖学教学

医学护理专业《人体解剖学》教学内容与临床应用的矛盾较为突出。该文就如何从实验、教学手法、培养目标等方面进行护理专业应用解剖学教学阐述了一些看法,认为护理专业解剖学教学应突出专业特色。     

The pace of change. New roles and challenges redefine the nursing profession

The speed at which a profession is changing can be gauged by the number of new roles its members play. By this measure, nursing has undergone a revolution over the past decade. Although nurses continue to devote much of their time to direct patient care, most of them also have roles as care planners, managers, educators, and even counselors. In many cases, moreover, nurses today do work and address problems that few would have identified as part of "nursing" 10 years ago. This photo essay presents three examples of nontraditional roles in nursing.     

Burnout syndrome among nursing staff at a hospital in Madrid

BACKGROUND: The term "burnout" is related to a situation arising increasingly more often among the professionals performing their duties by way of a long-term, direct, people-to-people relationship, which includes all healthcare professionals. This study is aimed at determining the prevalence of the Burnout syndrome and of the three components involved therein (emotional exhaustion, impersonalization and lack of personal fulfillment) among the nursing staff at the "Hospital Clínico Universitario San Carlos" in Madrid and the relationship thereof to certain socio-demographic, job-related and institutional factors. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the professionals assigned to the nursing staff at the above-mentioned hospital. The variables involved were gathered by means of a questionnaire prepared by those conducting this study. The Burnout syndrome was measured by means of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, in the validated Spanish version thereof. RESULTS: The nursing staff is more impersonalized (p=0.004) and less fulfilled (p=0.036) than the nursing assistant/technician group. When the results of the four scales by units were analyzed, burnout was found to be greater among the nursing staff assigned to oncology and emergency care units (p=0.001), the impersonalization in the emergency rooms (p=0.007), and Burnout is once again greater in the oncology and emergency units (p=0.000). Those professionals who answered that there was little recognition of their nursing care scored worst regarding Burnout and the three aspects thereof (p =0.000). The lower the degree of on-the-job satisfaction, the higher the scores on the four scales (p=0.000). CONCLUSIONS: The conclusion which may be drawn from this study is that the profile of a person affected by Burnout is that of a professional with on-the-job experience who nevertheless considers very little recognition to be given to their caregiving and a high degree of dissatisfaction with the way in which their workplaces are managed.