Turnover prevention: The direct and indirect association between organizational job stressors, negative emotions and professional commitment in novice nurses.

Yvonne ten Hoeve,Jasperina Brouwer,Saskia Kunnen

doi:10.1111/jan.14281

Yvonne ten Hoeve, Jasperina Brouwer + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.14281

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Abstract

AimsGetting insight in the most crucial organizational job stressors for novice nurses' professional commitment and whether the job stressors are mediated through negative emotions.DesignThe study used an observational cohort design.MethodsOrganizational job stressors were derived from 580 diary entries by 18 novice nurses combined with measures on emotions and commitment. The diaries were collected from September 2013–September 2014.ResultsPath modelling revealed that lack of support from colleagues, negative experiences with patients and confrontations with existential events were most strongly negatively related to professional commitment through negative emotions. Other indirectly and negatively related organizational job stressors to commitment were complexity of care, lack of control and work‐life imbalance; only conflicting job demands, and lack of control related to professional commitment directly.Conclusion(s)To enhance professional commitment, it is important to reduce negative emotions in novice nurses by collegial support in dealing with negative experiences with patients, complexity of care and existential events and to prevent lack of control and an imbalance between private life and work. Nurse supervisors and managers can encourage nurses to share negative patient experiences, issues related to complexity of care and existential events.ImpactConsidering the worldwide nursing shortage and early turnover, more understanding is needed about how negative emotions mediate the relationship between organizational negative job stressors and professional commitment and the relative impact of organizational job stressors to professional commitment. The study stresses the importance of a supportive role of supervisors and nurse managers to improve the work environment and hence increase novice nurses' commitment and retention.

Highlights

Employee turnover has been one of the main challenges of managers because of the costs involved in recruiting and training new employees (Lee, Gerhart, Weller, & Trevor, 2008)
This implies that we investigated the relative contribution of organizational job stressors to novice nurses' negative emotions and to professional commitment
The results showed that lack of support from colleagues, negative experiences with patients and existential events are the strongest indirectly related to novice nurses' professional commitment through negative emotions

Summary

Introduction

Employee turnover has been one of the main challenges of managers because of the costs involved in recruiting and training new employees (Lee, Gerhart, Weller, & Trevor, 2008). Total turnover costs are to a large extent caused by nurse turnover rates because of the considerable size of the workforce (Waldman, Kelly, Arora, & Smith, 2010). Both costs and, importantly, gaps in the supply of care and patient outcomes are a problem. Professional commitment, in turn, is linked to job demands—resources and emotional exhaustion (Jourdain & Chênevert, 2010) Negative emotions, such as job dissatisfaction, might reduce professional commitment and increase the risk of turnover, whereas positive work environments might decrease turnover rates (Suliman & Aljezawi, 2018). With regard to the current alarming shortage of nurses worldwide, it is important to investigate the relationship between professional commitment in (novice) nurses, negative emotions and organizational job stressors and, even more importantly, to identify the most crucial job stressors in terms of association with negative emotions and with job commitment

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