Risk and Protective Factors of Well-Being among Healthcare Staff. A Thematic Analysis.

The purpose of this study was to identify physical and psychosocial working conditions to improve well-being at work among healthcare staff. This is a potent area of inquiry given the relationship between healthcare staff well-being and service quality and other key organizational characteristics. However, while numerous studies in this area have used a quantitative methodology, very few have applied qualitative methodologies gathering subjective descriptions of the sources of well-being, providing in so doing significant data to explore in depth the factors that influence well-being in healthcare systems. We gathered qualitative data analyzing open-ended questions about risk and protective factors of well-being at work. The sample was made of 795 professionals answering an online questionnaire. Answers were coded and analyzed using the thematic analysis with an inductive approach (data-driven). We identified four themes strongly affecting professional well-being in health-care staff: Interactions, Working Conditions, Emotional Responses to Work, and Competence and Professional Growth. Our findings suggest possible strategies and actions that may be effective in helping to calibrate case-specific support and monitoring interventions to improve health and well-being of healthcare staff. We also discuss the implications of the study and suggest possible avenues for future empirical research.

Violence at School and the Well-Being of Teachers. The Importance of Positive Relationships.

In the discipline of positive psychology, "well-being" is considered a fundamental aspect of "human flourishing." Inherent to this multidimensional model are emotional, psychological, and social forms of well-being, which can be grounded in positive relationships in the work environment. By adopting an interpretive framework that emphasizes these dynamics, researchers are able to focus on elements that actively help sustain the process of flourishing, rather than on negative environmental features that should be avoided if possible. Within this broader discussion, the specific question of teachers' well-being is one that has global relevance and merits greater academic attention. After all, it has significant consequences for the educational environment and students' ability to learn. The literature suggests that teachers are increasingly exposed to violence on the part of students and/or their parents. Inappropriate and/or aggressive behavior like this can reduce a teacher's occupational well-being and make it more difficult to build positive relationships in the classroom. Ultimately, it is one of the most serious work-related stress factors affecting the profession today. Previous studies have attempted to characterize the contexts in which violence occurs, and its negative impact on both the individuals involved and the broader educational climate. Less attention has been devoted to the capacity of teachers to deal with violence and develop a more resilient mindset. The positive psychology perspective focuses on well-being as a multidimensional construct wherein psychosocial and physical comfort does not simply arise provided there is an absence of suffering and violence. Rather, according to this model, such experiences can be counteracted by a capacity to endure and build positive environments. With these considerations in mind, our study presents data gathered in primary and secondary schools in northern Italy. A total 475 teachers completed an online, self-report questionnaire. The results indicate that teachers can experience occupational well-being even if they are subjected to aggressive behaviors. Supportive leadership and good relationships with colleagues may be considered valuable resources for fostering well-being among teachers.

Addressing Risks of Violence against Healthcare Staff in Emergency Departments: The Effects of Job Satisfaction and Attachment Style.

Violence in the workplace is one of the most serious issues affecting the healthcare sector. The incidence of violent behaviour towards healthcare workers is increasing worldwide. It is difficult to assess the extent of the problem, however, as violent incidents are underreported. In fact, many doctors and nurses see violence-perpetrated primarily by patients and visitors (friends and relatives of patients)-as a part of their job. Several studies indicate that violent behaviour against healthcare workers has serious consequences for the professionals involved, as well as for the wider healthcare system. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the prevalence of patient and visitor violence in a number of emergency departments in northeastern Italy and to explore the relationship between violence and certain psychosocial factors (adult attachment style, age, and job satisfaction). Data were collected using an online questionnaire. Our results demonstrate that patient and visitor violence in emergency departments is a serious risk for nurses and doctors and that it is affected by several factors relating to both patient pathologies and the way the workplace and work patterns are organised. Previous studies indicate that the most common form of violence experienced in these contexts is emotional violence and that nurses are more likely than doctors to suffer emotional and physical violence. Based on multiple regression analysis of the data, it appears that greater age and higher scores in secure attachment are associated with reduced experience of emotional violence from patients and visitors. Furthermore, our results show that the relationship between secure attachment and the amount of patient-and-visitor-perpetrated emotional violence experienced is mediated by levels of job satisfaction. We also discuss the potential implications of these results in terms of using staff training to prevent and manage patient and visitor violence and improve the safety of healthcare professionals.

The Changing Educators' Work Environment in Contemporary Society.

In this paper, we are going to address job satisfaction and perceived self-efficacy withinthe context of residential child-care. A joint report from the European Foundation for the Improvement on Living and Working Conditions and the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work revealed that managers in the field of health and education were the most concerned about the psychosocial risk of their employees, although concern is not automatically translated into tools to face the risk and to manage it. So, measuring and improving employees' job satisfaction and self-efficacy can be an important means for organizations to prevent the outcomes of psychosocial risk, and supporting high quality performance of workers. But profound changes are affecting the nature of work at large, and specifically social educator's in the field of residential care with minors. Globalization, radical technological and communication developments, as well as the pressure to frame care as a commodity, are quickly changing procedures and praxis at work, and even the meaning of job itself. All these changes are highly demanding for this category of professionals, as much as the fact that the organizational setting is vanishing as a resource to sustain their professional attitudes and behaviors. Under these circumstances, job satisfaction and self-efficacy can be hard to experience, and isolating their precursors is essential to develop healthy and effective work environments. This paper means to highlight the process of supporting self-efficacy and job satisfaction in the educational work in residential youth care that is still underrepresented in research. It presents data emerging from two studies, study 1 involving 268 educators and study 2 involving 472 educators belonging to different Italian residential child-care services. Study 1 consists of a quantitative study including the following measures: attachment style, job satisfaction, work-related self-efficacy, and length of service. Study 2 consist of a qualitative exploration deepening the sources of educators' work-satisfaction. Quantitative data support the identification of attachment style and length of service as antecedents of work-related self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Qualitative data show the importance of relational issues in shaping the educators' satisfaction at work.