Commuter migration: work environment factors influencing nurses' decisions regarding choice of employment.

Nurse migration is of global concern for every country, and study of migration can provide critical information for managers concerned with nurse recruitment and retention. This mixed-methods research examined factors influencing registered nurses' (RNs') decisions to work in their home country, Canada, or to commute daily to a nursing position in the United States. Measures included nurses' feelings about their work environment conditions, work status congruence (the goodness of fit between employer expectations and their own regarding hours and times worked), professional development opportunities, and their perceptions of organizational support and autonomy (freedom and independence) in the workplace. All work environment variables were significantly higher for nurses working in Michigan. Qualitative results supported these survey findings, providing additional information about nurses' satisfaction. Nurses in our sample were more satisfied with all the work environment factors examined, even when stress from commuting out of country was experienced. The environmental issues examined in this study should be considered by nurse managers concerned with recruitment and retention of nurses.

Reactions of older employees to organizational downsizing: the role of gender, job level, and time.

This panel study examined the reactions of 187 federal government employees aged 45 and older during the initial phase of a large-scale downsizing and 20 months later. There were few significant differences in the reactions of older men and women. Respondents in management positions reported significantly more positive attitudes toward their job and the organization than did respondents in nonmanagement jobs. Compared with the initial phase of the downsizing, respondents reported a significant decrease in commitment to the organization 20 months later. For the two dimensions of job insecurity, perceived threat of job loss decreased, whereas sense of powerlessness over decisions affecting the future of one's job increased. A major area of concern for management is the low level of organizational trust and morale reported by the respondents at both time periods.

Downsizing-initiated job transfer of hospital nurses: how do the job transferees fare?

In this longitudinal panel study, the authors compared the reactions to hospital amalgamation of 66 nurses who had been transferred to a different unit for a downsizing-related reason (bumped/displaced, unit closed, redundancy) with the reactions of 181 nurses who remained on their same unit. Prior to any job transfers, the two groups perceived comparable levels of support and held similar attitudes towards their job and the hospital. Two years later, after job transfers had taken place, transferred nurses perceived significantly lower coworker support. They also reported a significantly greater decrease in organizational commitment than nurses who were not transferred. However, both groups reported a significant decrease between time a and time 2 in perceived organizational support, satisfaction with amount of work and career future, hospital identification, and organization trust. Overall, the results indicate that the downsizing associated with the amalgamation of the hospitals had a highly negative effects not only on those nurses who were transferred because of the downsizing but also on those nurses who remained on their original unit.

Predictors of job satisfaction, turnover, and burnout in female and male Jordanian nurses.

As health-care systems undergo significant changes, the phenomena of job satisfaction, turnover, and burnout in nurses are of interest to nursing communities throughout the world. The purpose of this research was to examine these phenomena in a population of Jordanian nurses that is constituted of 25% men. This descriptive correlation study involved a sample of 479 nurses (68% female, 32% male) employed in public and military hospitals in Jordan, representing a 77% response rate to a survey. Significant differences were found between men and women for some of the items measured but not for turnover or burnout. However, regression analyses did demonstrate that selected variables impacted differently on men and women for the 3 outcome measures. Implications for nursing in Jordan are discussed.

An Arabic language version of the health promotion lifestyle profile.

The purpose of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of an Arabic version of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile instrument in Jordan, whose society and culture differ from that of North America, where the instrument was developed. The instrument was translated into Arabic, back-translated, and pilot tested to ascertain cultural sensitivity. The Arabic version was then evaluated using a convenience sample of 950 adults in the northern part of Jordan using a principal components factor analysis. The order of factors was not entirely identical to those isolated previously during the psychometric assessment of the English language version. Only the structure of three factors--self actualization, health responsibility--and exercise were the same as those obtained in the English version. The forced, six factor solution explained only 39.3% of the variance in the measure. The alpha reliability coefficients were 0.89 for the total scale and ranged from 0.85 to 0.60 for the subscales. It was concluded that the Arabic version of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile has demonstrated initial reliability and validity. Further testing is recommended.

The impact of organizational downsizing on the job satisfaction of nurses.

Professional nurses across Canada are being affected by health reform initiatives designed to deinstitutionalize the health care system. This panel study examined the impact this restructuring has had on nurses' overall job satisfaction as well as their satisfaction with various aspects of their job and work environment. The participants consisted of 345 nurses employed in 3 community hospitals in southwestern Ontario. Hospital downsizing had relatively little effect on overall job satisfaction, satisfaction with kind of work, amount of work, and physical work conditions. However, compared to before the downsizing, nurses reported a significant deterioration in satisfaction with their career future, hospital identification, supervision, and co-workers following the implementation of restructuring initiatives. We discuss the organizational and management implications of these findings and suggest ways that hospital administrators can minimize the negative effects of downsizing on nursing professionals.

The effect of unit type and gender on Jordanian nurses' job satisfaction: a comparison of operating room, medical-surgical, and critical care nurses.

This study examines the quality of nursing work life for men and women in Jordan. Specifically it focuses on similarities and differences across three unit types: operating room, intensive care/critical care, and medical-surgical. Findings suggest that both gender and unit type should be considered when examining nurses' perceptions of the quality of work life.

Determinants and consequences of burnout: a cross-cultural comparison of Canadian and Jordanian nurses.

We compared the determinants and consequences of burnout for Canadian (N = 586) and Jordanian (N = 263) registered nurses working in a hospital setting. LISREL 7 software was used to perform a path analysis testing hypothesized relationships between job satisfaction dimensions (supervision, hospital identification, kind of work, amount of work, physical work conditions, rewards, and career future) and burnout and intention to quit. For both Canadian and Jordanian nurses, kind of work, amount of work, and career future were important determinants of burnout. Career future and burnout (emotional exhaustion) were associated with intention to quit on the basis of the highly similar results across the two samples, we propose that a universal theoretical model of the determinants and consequences of burnout among nurses may be plausible.

Job satisfaction, propensity to leave and burnout in RNs and RNAs: a multivariate perspective.

This investigation used a multivariate approach to examine similarities and differences between the job satisfaction, propensity to leave, and burnout of registered nurses (RNs) (n = 623) and registered nursing assistants (RNAs) (n = 231). At best, both groups were only moderately satisfied with their jobs, and there were no significant differences between the groups on the outcome measures of satisfaction, burnout or propensity to leave. However, RNs with more years of work experience reported highest job satisfaction, lowest levels of burnout, and were less likely to leave their positions. None of these variables were related to the length of time RNAs were employed. When comparative analyses were conducted by unit types, RNs in psychiatric settings were least satisfied with their jobs, more likely to leave their positions, and reported more burnout than did RNs in other settings. Implications of the study for interventions and future research are discussed.