המכון הלאומי לחקר שירותי הבריאות ומדיניות הבריאות (ע”ר)

The Israel National Institute For Health Policy Research

Health promoting behaviors among Israeli nurses and their association with organizational environment, burnout, job satisfaction and quality of care.

Researchers: Rachel Wilf-Miron1, Ilya Kagan1, Nili Tabak1, Oren Asman1, Liora Valinsky2
  1. Tel-Aviv University
  2. Meuhedet Healthcare
Background: Health behaviors (HB) affect nurses' wellbeing, burnout, and their position as role models for patients.
Objectives: To describe HB and burnout among nurses and to examine associations with work environment, job satisfaction and quality of care.
Method: This mixed methods, three-stage study design, consisted of a pilot survey among 171 nurses, two focus groups (n=37) to elucidate and validate the survey items, and a cross-sectional multicenter survey by an on-line questionnaire, disseminated to nurses working in 19 healthcare organizations in Israel.
Findings: Among 3,542 respondents, 91% were females and 64% worked at hospitals; 64% did not achieve the physical activity target, more than half reported unfavorable eating habits; 66% failed to perform recommended screening tests, 66% slept less than 7 hours, 15% were current smokers and 47% felt considerable emotional stress at work. Workplaces were rated low as health-promoting environments (M=2.2±.58; 1-5 scale). Mean burnout score was 3.3, 3.4 and 3.6 among community nurses, hospital nurses who do not work night shifts and those working night shifts, respectively (p<0.0001); 68% of respondents were satisfied with their job, and 78% reported providing appropriate, patient–centered care. Males and hospital nurses reported less favorable HB, higher stress and burnout and less job satisfaction, compared with community nurses.
Good perceived health and health promoting work environment predicted high job satisfaction, while high burnout predicted low job satisfaction. Better eating habits, perceived health and health promoting environment were associated with less burnout.
Conclusions: Israeli nurses, especially males and hospital nurses, demonstrated unfavorable health behaviors and considerable burnout, which may negatively affect their health and wellbeing.
Recommendations: Our study addresses the urgent need to create a health promoting work environment, which might increase job satisfaction directly, or by reducing burnout. This intervention has the potential to improve nurses' wellbeing and retention, nursing care and public health.
Research number: R/81/2016
Research end date: 12/2019
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