Improving motivation among health care workers in private health care organizations

Abstract

PurposeThe study aims to explore the experiences of nursing personnel in private health care organizations in Lithuania, in terms of their work motivation and satisfaction, promotion and quitting the job, interpersonal interaction at work and to identify areas for sustainable improvement to the health care services they provide.Design/methodology/approachThe research problem includes the following questions. What is the attitude of nursing personnel to the existing elements of motivation in private health care organizations? What organizational tools should be developed in order to improve the motivation of nursing personnel? The sample consists of 237 registered nurses practitioners and 30 nurses' managers working in private health care sector. Methods: data selection: questioning survey; data analysis: descriptive statistics, correlation and factor analysis (using SPSS for Windows 12.0). The research instrument involves 99 closed‐ended items divided into 11 evaluation blocks; Cronbach α of every part ranges from 0.68 to 0.85.FindingsResults showed no statistical differences among nurse practitioners and executives of what motivates them in private health care organization as workplace and illuminated factors that decrease and increase motivation among nurses. Motivation decreases, when nurses are not empowered not autonomous in activity; nurses' competencies (specific professional and general) are not applied in full value, e.g. managerial, educational, social‐psychological, clinical/expertise; decisions are not made collectively; in organization does not exist mechanism of information‐sharing; meetings of personnel are not prepared methodically. Motivation increases when the nurses collaborate with physicians by parity; nursing profession is respected and recognized as autonomous and valued by themselves and other health care specialists; the interpersonal communication is effective and conflicts are solved constructively.Research limitations/implicationsA major weakness is that the characteristics of the present sample may limit the generalizability of the results. The major implication is that the paper supports the prediction for characteristics of motivation among health care workers in private health care organizations with perspective of nursing personnel.Originality/valueThe paper examines in a private health care sector the factors that increase and/or decrease the motivation of nursing personnel.