Non-nursing tasks, nursing tasks left undone and job satisfaction among professional nurses in South African hospitals

Bekker, Monique; Coetzee, Siedine K.; Klopper, Hester C.; Ellis, Suria

doi:10.1111/jonm.12261

Cited by 66 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In addition to consequences already documented (such as … missed nursing care, frustration, burnout, (Bekker et al. ; Tunc & Ozen Kutanis ), the participants reported feeling tension towards other healthcare workers who manifest less role flexibility. Moreover, when nurses function out of their role, patients are at an increased need of care because what is expected is not delivered; competences of nurses can also be eroded due to their reduced clinical exposure and experience with patients, for example when they perform administrative work.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

“…‘being a handyman’) suggest that the nurses perceived themselves as a powerful profession, capable of multirole functions and hard work (Bekker et al. ; Bruyneel et al. ; Kearney et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), their burnout (Tunc & Ozen Kutanis ), job dissatisfaction (Bekker et al. ), role conflict, uncertainty and discrepancies between tasks they have been educated to perform and those they are expected to deliver (Tunc & Ozen Kutanis ). However, nurses have proved to be resilient and to adapt themselves to the healthcare organization's needs (Allen ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Non‐nursing tasks as experienced by nurses: a descriptive qualitative study

Grosso¹,

Tonet²,

Bernard³

et al. 2019

International Nursing Review

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Background Different concepts have been used to date (e.g. non‐nursing tasks, organizational work) to define tasks performed by clinical nurses other than nursing care. However, the true essence of nursing work is still poorly understood mostly because nurses are lacking an appropriate lexicon to describe their practice. Aims To describe non‐nursing tasks as experienced by nurses, exploring antecedents and consequences as perceived in daily practice. Methods A descriptive qualitative study from 2015 to 2016. A purposeful sample of nurses was approached. Semi‐structured interviews were used, and content analysis was performed on audio‐recorded and verbatim‐transcribed interviews. Findings A total of 22 nurses participated, the majority of whom were female (16; 72.7%) and their average age was 42.6 years. The concept of ‘Non‐nursing tasks’ is limited in describing what nurses experience in daily practice; the concept of ‘Being out of the nursing role’ emerged as being fully descriptive of the nurses’ experience and this can occur in two dimensions: outside and inside the role of other healthcare professions. The first dimension includes administrative work separating nurses from patients. The second dimension was reported to happen in proximity to patients but in three different directions towards professions requiring: (a) less education (e.g. healthcare assistants), (b) the same amount of education at university level (e.g. physiotherapists), and (c) higher education at university level as compared to nurses, thus performing activities expected by physicians. Antecedents of ‘Being out of the nursing role’ have been identified at the organizational, individual and educational levels; their consequences have been reported at the patient, professional and organizational levels. Conclusion Nurses play various non‐nursing roles, below, above and in the horizontal levels, both inside and outside other healthcare professionals’ role, mainly as a result of their felt moral obligation to offer the best to their patients, the organization's demand to nurses and the imprinting of nursing education. Implications for nursing/health policy Strategies at the nursing professional and policy levels are needed aimed at (a) supporting nurses in optimizing their professional identity, (b) sharing their sense of moral obligation towards patients with other healthcare professionals, and (c) implementing models of care based on interprofessional cooperation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 73%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Non‐nursing tasks as experienced by nurses: a descriptive qualitative study

Grosso¹,

Tonet²,

Bernard³

et al. 2019

International Nursing Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…, Bekker et al . ). Staff nurses in North America might also have to take on more responsibilities for managing services and personnel because front‐line nursing management positions have been cut (Aiken et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Working time use and division of labour among nurses and health-care workers in hospitals - a systematic review

2016

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“…[9] In a South African study including 1,166 nursing professionals, NCLU were considered the major factor of job dissatisfaction. [12] A recently published article [13] analyzed the correlated factors and predictors of NCLU. These were directly related to the type of hospital and units, the age of the participants and their functions, as well as the perception of nurses about the appropriate number of nurses and the type of teamwork.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

RN4Cast Study in Portugal: Nurses and care left undone

Braga

Jesus

Araújo

2018

JHA

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Background: Over the past decades, nursing in Portugal has evolved greatly both academically and professionally and this evolution brought along growing concerns about the quality of the healthcare provided. Due to lack of time or poor organization of the workload, nurses are often faced with the need to choose between what must be done and what will have to be postponed or even not be done at all. Objective: To investigate the care activities that are most frequently left undone or are postponed by nurses working in medical and surgical inpatient units in Portugal. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional, quantitative study that follows the RN4CAST (Nurse Forecasting in Europe) methodology was carried out from October 2013 to April 2014. A total of 31 hospitals and a random sample of adult medical-surgical units were involved. The data were collected using a socio-demographic questionnaire and a nursing questionnaire that included the identification of the nursing activities of surveillance and direct patient care that were necessary but postponed or not performed by nurses in their most recent shift. Results: A total of 2,235 nurses participated. Almost all participants had a nursing bachelor degree (98.2%). The most frequently left undone or postponed care items were "Educating patients and family" (50.2%) and "Comfort/talk with patients" (50.1%); the least frequently left undone items were "Treatments and procedures" (3.9%) and "Pain management" (5.6%). Nurses in the North and Center regions of the country were the ones who reported less care left undone due to lack of time. Nurses under the age of 40 were those who reported a highest number of activities left undone. Conclusions: Nurses make selective choices about the care activities that are crucial for the patient. Some activities that may not have an immediate impact on the health of the patients are sidelined, although they may have an impact on other important healthcare quality indicators.

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Non-nursing tasks, nursing tasks left undone and job satisfaction among professional nurses in South African hospitals

Abstract: Role overlapping and work performed by professional nurses below their skill level should be identified and re-organised; support services should be employed and efficiently used.

Cited by 66 publications

References 18 publications

Non‐nursing tasks as experienced by nurses: a descriptive qualitative study

Non‐nursing tasks as experienced by nurses: a descriptive qualitative study

Working time use and division of labour among nurses and health-care workers in hospitals - a systematic review

RN4Cast Study in Portugal: Nurses and care left undone

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