Patriotism, organizational commitment and nurses’ intention to report for work in emergencies

Abstract

To examine the influence of nurses' patriotism and organizational commitment on their intention to report for work in a national emergency, in Israel. Healthcare systems need to forecast the number of staff likely to report for work in emergencies and mass casualty events. Patriotism and nurses' commitment to work are factors that prompt nurses to leave their families and report for duty, even knowing that they are putting themselves in danger. However, patriotism as a variable that might affect nurses' intention to report for work in emergencies has not been investigated. A descriptive, cross-sectional survey was used with a convenience sample of 152 registered nurses. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients and t-tests were used to analyse the data. To examine the unique contribution of the independent variables to the explanation of the dependent variable - intention to report to work in emergency - multiple regression analysis was performed. Significant positive correlations were found between age, seniority and research variables (organizational commitment, patriotism and intention to report for emergency work). Patriotism differed by gender, ethnicity and religion. Patriotism and gender explained 23% of the variance regarding intention to report for emergency duty, with patriotism playing a major role. Patriotism has religious and cultural dimensions. Cultural differences explain the discrepancy in organizational commitment between Israeli-born nurses and immigrants. Emergency training drills for nurses should feature discussions on universal ethical principles in emergency planning, preparedness and responses. The willingness of ethnic/religious minorities and immigrants to report for work in a national emergency should be taken into consideration in healthcare system disaster planning, so as to lessen the impact of disparate patriotism.