The relationship between hospital work environment and nurse outcomes in Guangdong, China: a nurse questionnaire survey

Abstract

Aims and objectives This study examines the relationship between hospital work environments and job satisfaction, job-related burnout and intention to leave among nurses in Guangdong province, China. Background The nursing shortage is an urgent global problem and also of concern in China. Studies in Western countries have shown that better work environments are associated with higher nurse satisfaction and lower burnout, thereby improving retention and lowering turnover rates. However, there is little research on the relationship between nurse work environments and nurse outcomes in China. Design This is a cross-sectional study. Survey data were collected from 1104 bedside nurses in 89 medical, surgical and intensive care units in 21 hospitals across the Guangdong province in China. Methods Stratified convenience sampling was used to select hospitals, and systematic sampling was used to select units. All staff nurses working on participating units were surveyed. The China Hospital Nurse Survey, including the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index and Maslach Burnout Inventory, was employed to collect data from nurses. Statistical significance level was set at 0·05. Results Thirty-seven per cent of the nurses experienced high burnout, and 54% were dissatisfied with their jobs. Improving nurses’ work environments from poor to better was associated with a 50% decrease in job dissatisfaction and a 33% decrease in job-related burnout among nurses. Conclusion Burnout and job dissatisfaction are high among hospital nurses in Guangdong province, China. Better work environments for nurses were associated with decreased job dissatisfaction and job-related burnout, which may successfully address the nursing shortage in China. Relevance to clinical practice The findings of this study indicate that improving work environments is essential to deal with the nursing shortage; the findings provide motivation for nurse managers and policy makers to improve work environments of hospital nurses in China.

Burnout among nurses working in critical care settings: a case of a selected tertiary hospital in Rwanda

“…31,32 This assertion is similar to the findings of many studies. 9,23,24,33,34 This study found high level of burnout among participants who have 1-5 living children. However, the current study did not find any association between the level of burnout and number of living children (P>0.05).…”

“…Similar to this, various studies identified high level of burnout among ICU nurses. 3,4,[21][22][23][24][25] However, a census report on risk factors on burnout and fatigue among nurses revealed a low level of burnout (14.5%) in the ICU comparing to other units; oncology 21.9%, theatre 17.2% and 15.9% in the Emergency Department. Therefore, ICU was not proven to be a stressful working environment than other working units.…”

Determinantes de la satisfacción laboral en diferentes situaciones clínicas de podología

“…All studies support the possibility that job satisfaction levels could be affected according to the clinical setting. It has also been concluded that by improving the work environment, job dissatisfaction levels have decreased 9 . This in turn influences productivity together with better quality of work within any organization 2 .…”

Untitled

“…Positive work environment plays a comprehensive role in order to promote healthy work. Liu et al [8] study on the work environments of hospital nurses in China. "The findings of this study indicated that nurses in nearly 40% of the surveyed units rated their work environments as poor, and nurses were dissatisfied with their job and suffered from high burnout.…”