Abstract
AimTo assess the performance of front‐line nurses, who believed they were living out their calling, during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic.BackgroundAlthough as a profession nursing generally requires high levels of performance, the disruption arising from an infectious disease outbreak increases the work stress and decreases the performance of front‐line nurses. How this situation can be improved has yet to be thoroughly examined.MethodWe used a snowball sampling technique to recruit 339 nurses who were originally from outside Hubei but volunteered to join medical teams going to Hubei to tackle COVID‐19.ResultsDrawing on the theory of work as a calling, we found that living a calling had a positive effect on front‐line nurses’ performance through the clinical and relational care they provided. Perceived supervisor support strengthened these mediated relationships.ConclusionOur findings indicate that despite the constraints associated with pandemics, front‐line nurses who are living a calling are able to provide better clinical and relational care to infected patients, which in turn improves their performance.Implications for Nursing ManagementThe findings of this study suggest that hospitals can introduce career educational interventions to enhance nurses’ ability to discern and live out their calling to improve their performance.
Highlights
Infectious disease outbreaks have recently become more common worldwide (Lam et al, 2018), such as the outbreaks of the Ebola virus disease (Chertow et al, 2014), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (Lam et al, 2018)
We further argue that frontline nurses who believe that they are living a calling through their work demonstrate high levels of nursing performance, that this positive effect is mediated by their clinical and relational caring abilities (Cossette et al, 2006), and that these indirect effects are conditional on the level of perceived supervisor support (PSS) that they receive (Eisenberger et al, 2002)
We argue that the extent to which health organization goals in a pandemic are achieved depends on the effective services frontline nurses provide to infected patients, which are largely influenced by their effort and persistence when facing difficulties (Thompson & Bunderson, 2019)
Summary
Infectious disease outbreaks have recently become more common worldwide (Lam et al, 2018), such as the outbreaks of the Ebola virus disease (Chertow et al, 2014), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (Lam et al, 2018). We draw on work as calling theory (WCT; Duffy et al, 2018) and argue that frontline nurses who perceive themselves as living a calling through their nursing jobs are likely to demonstrate increased levels of nursing performance during the COVID-19 outbreak. We further argue that frontline nurses who believe that they are living a calling through their work demonstrate high levels of nursing performance, that this positive effect is mediated by their clinical and relational caring abilities (Cossette et al, 2006), and that these indirect effects are conditional on the level of perceived supervisor support (PSS) that they receive (Eisenberger et al, 2002).
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