Individual Responses to Stress and Burnout: Workplace Issues for Australian Nurses and Midwives
The presentation of this quantitative research looks at the relationship between nurses' and midwives' individual responses and organisational factors concerning stress and burnout in the workplace. This research aims to understand and assess the associations and relationships between nurses' and midwives' individual responses and factors causing stress and burnout in the workplace. This might enable nurses and midwives to reduce the impact of negative consequences of stress and burnout in conjunction with ethical and professional changes within nursing work practices. A questionnaire was developed and administered to nurses and midwives working in healthcare organisations in Australia to document their awareness of their individual responses to workplace issues and factors leading to stress and burnout. The majority of this study's respondents were dealing with moderate levels of stress and burnout and showed moderate levels of self-imposed work pressure and motivation which related to work behaviours. The three factors linked with stress for this study; being the work environment, psychosocial effects, and job dissatisfaction were all positively associated with exhaustion, the factor linked with burnout. Important factors linked with stress and burnout included time-related issues, excessive workloads, low morale as well as powerlessness. According to this research, organisational support could be improved so that nurses and midwives can support their colleagues.
Job satisfaction of Australian nurses and midwives: A descriptive research study
Objective: To assess factors linked with job satisfaction of Australian nurses and midwives. Design: Descriptive survey. Setting Public hospital, aged care facility and community health centres. Subjects A total of 562 enrolled and registered nurses and midwives were selected by convenience sampling when they attended professional conferences. The return rate was 41.4 per cent. A sample size of 550 was used to calculate overall results for job satisfaction. Main outcome measure Factors contributing to nurses' and midwives' job satisfaction. Results: The majority (96%) of this sample of nurses and midwives were moderately or highly satisfied with their work and this was not diminished by experiencing moderate amounts of work-related stress. Factors positively related to high levels of job satisfaction were 1) enjoying their current area of practice; 2) feeling well-suited to the particular type of work; 3) wanting to stay in their current area of practice; and 4) having no intention of leaving the profession. Conclusion: For this group of professionally engaged nurses and midwives, enjoying their work and perceiving themselves as well-suited to it were the major contributory factors for job satisfaction. The finding that nurses and midwives are dealing with moderate effects of stress does not reflect as job dissatisfaction. This finding is important because it challenges existing belief that stress may be a cause of job dissatisfaction.