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(Wolfville,
NS) - Atlantic Canada’s nurses still face steep
workloads, overtime, high stress and burnout, but calls for concern
have not been ignored by nursing environments in Atlantic Canada
reports a new study released by the Centre for Organizational
Research and Development (COR&D) at Acadia University.
Results from the
Health Canada-funded study, Nursing Environments: Knowledge to
Action, reveal that many positive improvements in nursing
environments have been realized, such as provincial nursing
strategies, increased university seats for educating new nurses,
commitment to nursing leadership within governments and health
districts, improvements to information systems and attention to
issues concerning practice guidelines of professional groups. As
well, numerous grassroots workplace improvement projects are evident
throughout Atlantic Canada.
There is still much to
be done, however, concerning day-to-day worklife issues for nurses.
For instance, increased capacity to educate student nurses hasn’t
yet solved the problems of understaffing and high workloads. This
can be problematic, since high workloads result in high rates of
overtime, high absenteeism, stress and burnout, ultimately affecting
nurses’ interactions with patients.
Workplaces are
grappling with how to address these issues. While policy research is
valuable in naming a problem and raising awareness, it rarely
provides an answer for how to fix the problem at a local level. The
complexities of the health care system, fiscal constraints and
population health concerns all affect the ability to speed
improvements for overworked nurses.
The study was headed
by COR&D Director and Canada Research Chair Dr. Michael Leiter. “In
this study, we looked at quality of worklife, human resources
issues, and other similar recommendations that are contained in many
national policy documents aimed at improving health care,” says Dr.
Leiter. “We found some improvements in terms of planning and uptake,
but we haven’t yet seen the full benefits of this planning in the
workplace. It’s an issue of timing; we’re still waiting to see the
impact. We also found that the nurse at the bedside has little
knowledge of the content of these reports, and has seen little
change in day-to-day worklife issues such as high overtime, stress
and burnout. The link between worklife and quality of care is
already known, so improving nurses’ worklife is of critical
importance.”
The Nursing
Environments: Knowledge to Action study aimed to identify
whether the worklife concerns of past reports (such as the Romanow
and Kirby reports) had been addressed in Atlantic Canada. A diverse
Atlantic Canadian research team explored the use of policy research
by health care decision makers when dealing with worklife issues. It
found that the recommendations for improvements contained in policy
reports are often not addressed. The team explored factors that can
help organizations implement recommendations, and factors that
prevent implementation. The team also tracked progress made in
tackling nurses’ worklife concerns.
About the Centre for
Organizational Research and Development: The COR&D research team
examines organizational relationships through topics such as burnout
and managing change, and conducts research with organizations to
help them with their human resource needs.
COR&D collaborates on
projects with both researchers and corporate management around the
world. Currently, the Centre is involved in research projects or
business consulting in the United States, Italy, Turkey, and Canada.
The Centre is committed to its dual focus of excellence in research
and optimizing organizational worklife.
Acadia University, in
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, is recognized as one of Canada’s premier
undergraduate institutions. With its nationally and internationally
recognized research initiatives, small class sizes, and its
technology-rich teaching and learning environment, Acadia offers
students a personalized education that includes rigorous academic
programs combined with personal growth and development. For more
information about Acadia, visit our website at
www.acadiau.ca
For more information about the project and report, contact:
Dr. Michael Leiter
Centre for Organizational Research and Development Acadia University
Phone: 1-902-585-1671
michael.leiter@acadiau.ca
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