Glass ceiling phenomenon in nursing: A scoping review

@#Glass ceiling is the unseen barrier that prohibits women and minorities in achieving a higher potential in the workplace. This barrier influences the well-being and prosperity of women and minorities resulting to career stagnation and inability to earn a higher income. Despite the abundance of literature on the issue, there is a dearth of comprehensive information that examines the organizational, cultural, and individual factors that contribute to the glass ceiling phenomenon in the healthcare industry. The main goal of this study is to do a full scoping review to find and map all the existing healthcare settings that contribute to the glass ceiling effect. A total of 28,184 hits resulted in the search of the published and grey literature. Nine articles passed the full-text review and were further reviewed. Data were synthesized and interpreted to determine the experiences of nurses about the glass ceiling phenomenon. Findings: Gender discrimination, bias, and stereotyping prevent nurses from learning executive summary skills, maintain the gender wage gap, and lead to unequal treatment of women and men in the health workforce; structural and systemic barriers within healthcare organizations can restrict their access to these higher-level positions; underrepresentation of women in leadership roles leads to lack of mentors; and lack of work-life balance due to limited flexible work arrangements.

The mediating role of intrinsic motivation between challenge-hindrance stressors and thriving at work among clinical nurses / 中国实用护理杂志

Objective:To explore the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and thriving at work in clinical nurses, and to analyze the mediating role of intrinsic motivation.Methods:This was a cross-sectional survey. A total of 319 nurses from the Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong First Medical University, Qilu Hospital of Shandong University, Shandong Provincial Qianfoshan Hospital from May to June 2022 were investigated by general data questionnaire, Challenge-Hindrance Stressors Scale, Intrinsic Motivation Scale and Thriving At Work Scale. Pearson was used to analyze the correlation between various variables, and Amos 23.0 was used to construct a structural equation model to analyze the mediating role of intrinsic motivation between challenging stressors, hindrance stressors, and thriving at work.Results:The score for challenging stressors was (21.22 ± 4.42) points, the score for hindrance stressors was (13.51 ± 3.59) points, the score for intrinsic motivation was (78.96 ± 11.52) points, and the score for thriving at work was (51.27 ± 8.03) points. Challenging stressors was positively associated with intrinsic motivation and thriving at work ( r=0.222, 0.221, both P<0.01), hindrance stressors was negatively associated with intrinsic motivation and thriving at work ( r=-0.152, -0.337, both P<0.01), intrinsic motivation was positively correlated with thriving at work ( r=0.564, P<0.01). Intrinsic motivation was partially mediated between challenging stressors, hindrance stressors and thriving at work, respectively accounting for 16.02% and 13.79%. Conclusions:Challenging stressors and hindrance stressors can indirectly influence their thriving at work through intrinsic motivation. Nursing managers should help nurses treat different stressors correctly to enhance their intrinsic motivation and promote their thriving at work.

How job stress influences job performance among Chinese healthcare workers: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES@#Public service motivation refers to the idea of commitment to the public service, pursuit of the public interest, and the desire to perform work that is worthwhile to society. This study investigates how challenge stress and hindrance stress influence job performance among healthcare workers in Chinese public hospitals. It has also examined the mediating effect of public service motivation.@*METHODS@#Data of 1594 healthcare workers were obtained from typical public hospitals in eastern, central, and western China. To test our hypotheses, we used descriptive statistical analysis, correlation analysis, structural equation modeling, and subgroup analysis to investigate the sample.@*RESULTS@#Challenge stress and hindrance stress were strongly correlated among healthcare workers in Chinese public hospitals (β = 0.59; p < 0.001). Challenge stress was significantly positively associated with public service motivation (β = 0.14; p < 0.001) and job performance (β = 0.13; p < 0.001). Hindrance stress was significantly negatively associated with public service motivation (β = - 0.27; p < 0.001) and job performance (β = - 0.08; p < 0.05). Public service motivation was directly positively associated with job performance (β = 0.58; p < 0.001), and it indirectly mediated the association between job stress and job performance.@*CONCLUSIONS@#This study provides important empirical evidence on the effects of job stress and public service motivation on job performance among healthcare workers in Chinese public hospitals. Job performance may be raised by limiting hindrance stress, which provides moderate challenge stress and increases public service motivation.

Association between perceived social support and challenge-hindrance working pressure source in clinical nurses / 现代临床护理

Objective To investigate the current status of perceived social support and challenge-hindrance working pressure source and explore the association between the perceived social support and challenge-hindrance working pressure source in clinical nurses. Methods The perceived social support scale and challenge-hindrance working pressure source scale were investgated in the study among 295 clinical nurses. Pearson correlation analysis was used to explore the association between the clinical nurses' perceived social support and challenge-hindrance working pressure source. Results The total score of clinical nurses' perceived social support was (62.12 ±10.48), the score of clinical nurses' challenging working pressure source was (22.63 ±3.67), and the score of hindrance working pressure source was (15.17±3.41). The clinical nurses' perceived social support and its dimensions were significantly positively related with the challenging working pressure source (P ＜0.01). Other support dimension of perceived social support was significantly negatively related with the hindrance working pressure source (P ＜0.01). Conclusions The perceived social support and challenge-hindrance working pressure source of clinical nurses are at a medium to high level. The higher level of clinical nurses' perceived social support is, the higher level of challenge working pressure sources. The family members, friends, leaders and colleagues should give more support for the clinical nurses, so as to enhance their subjective support, increase positive effect of working pressure source, promote their progress and improve their quality of nursing.

Effect of Steric Hindrance on the Acylation Reaction of Pentacyclic Triterpenoids: Taking Glycyrrhetinic Acid and Oleanolic Acid as Examples / 中国药学杂志

OBJECTIVE To investigate the effect of steric hindrance on the acylation reaction of pentacyclic triterpenoids, taking glycyrrhetinic acid and oleanolic acid as examples. METHODS The parent nucleus of glycyrrhetinic acid and oleanolic acid were selected, for which the steric hindrance is different at the two carboxyl sites: one is non-angle, another is angle. The parent nucleus were combined with cyclopentylamine, cyclohexylamine, piperidine, and pyrrolidine, respectively. The four simple nitrogen-containing heterocycles are distinct from the four-membered or five-membered ring and the nitrogen atom is inside or outside the ring. By means of comparing and analyzing the acylation reaction results, the reasons influencing acylation reactions were explored. RESULTS Glycyrrhetinic acid had acylation reaction with four simple nitrogen-containing heterocycles normally, whereas oleanolic acid only formed a kind of intermediate active ester, “oleanolic acid-HOBt”, and no final target object could be obtained. CONCLUSION The effect of nitrogen-containing heterocycles on the acylation reaction is almost negligible, while the steric hindrance of different parent nucleuses has significant influence on the acylation reaction. This study is of reference significance for the acylation reaction of triterpenoid carboxyl groups.