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. 2021 Apr;29(3):421-431.
doi: 10.1111/jonm.13181. Epub 2020 Nov 18.

Surviving an infectious disease outbreak: How does nurse calling influence performance during the COVID-19 fight?

Yan Zhou  1 , Eric Adom Asante  2 , Yiyu Zhuang  1 , Jie Wang  3 , Yue Zhu  4 , Lihua Shen  1
Affiliations

Surviving an infectious disease outbreak: How does nurse calling influence performance during the COVID-19 fight?

Yan Zhou et al. J Nurs Manag. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Aim: To assess the performance of front-line nurses, who believed they were living out their calling, during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

Background: Although 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.

Method: We 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.

Results: Drawing 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.

Conclusion: Our 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 management: The 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.

Keywords: COVID-19; caring; living a calling; nursing performance; perceived supervisor support.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Conceptual model.Note. Age, sex and nursing tenure are included as demographic controls. Work meaning is included as a control mediator
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) The interaction effect of living a calling and perceived supervisor support on clinical care. (b) The interaction effect of living a calling and perceived supervisor support on relational care
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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