Survey Results of the New Health Care Worker Study:
Implications of Changing Employment Patterns
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abstract
This report examines the effects of contemporary employment
arrangements on the quality of nursing work life, and the
implications of these employment arrangements for individual
nurses, the hospitals, and also for the organization. First we
look at nurse work status (full-time, part-time or casual job),
contract status (permanent or temporary), and employment
preference as factors affecting commitment to the hospital and
profession, job satisfaction, retention in the organization, and
absenteeism from work. Second, we examine stress, burnout,
and physical occupational health problems (in particular,
musculoskeletal disorders), as affecting nurse and hospital
outcomes.
This project investigated how the quality of nursing
worklife and career choices differ for nurses in full-time, part-time
and casual employment, and whether nurses who have the
employment arrangements they prefer enjoy a standard of
worklife that encourages retention. We collected data for the
study from 1,396 nurses employed at three large teaching
hospitals in Southern Ontario (Hamilton Health Sciences,
Kingston General Hospital, and St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto)
using the New Health Care Worker Questionnaire. Results
indicate that although a substantial majority of the nurses were
employed in the type of job that they preferred, problems of
stress, burnout and physical health problems were reported.
Further, these problems affected the nurses' job satisfaction,
commitment, and propensity to leave the hospitals.
