Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jul 31:14:1112530.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1112530. eCollection 2023.

Capturing dynamics in nursing: a diary study of nurses' job characteristics and ability and willingness to continue working

Renée Cornelia Josephina Maria Vermeulen  1 , Evelien Hanna van Leeuwen  1   2
Affiliations

Capturing dynamics in nursing: a diary study of nurses' job characteristics and ability and willingness to continue working

Renée Cornelia Josephina Maria Vermeulen et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to gain insight into (1) the dynamics of job characteristics (demands and resources) of nurses and (2) how job characteristics relate to nurses' ability and willingness to continue working (understood as employability). Job characteristics are profession-specific and vary over time, but studies often overlook these dynamics. Moreover, job characteristics relate to nurses' employability, which is under pressure due to a rapidly changing work environment. It is necessary to gain insight into the dynamic job characteristics of nurses to develop targeted workplace interventions that help nurses remain employable.

Methods: This study adopted a mixed methods diary approach, with a strong emphasis on qualitative analysis. 46 Nurses from two hospitals in a large Dutch city completed a structured diary at six points over 3 weeks, resulting in 225 diary entries in total. The nurses used a custom-made application on their mobile devices to describe in their own words what they experienced as demanding and resourceful throughout the shifts and how they experienced their employability. Prior to the diaries, nurses completed an intake survey.

Results: A within-person analysis highlighted the day-to-day dynamics in the nursing profession. The job characteristics a nurse mentioned in the first diary entry often were completely different from the job characteristics the same nurse mentioned in the other diary entries. This analysis also showed variety within nurses' employability, demonstrating that perceptions of employability vary over time. A between-person analysis highlighted links between job characteristics and nurses' employability: social interactions strengthen a nurse's employability, a strict task approach threatens it, and aspects such as a strong drive to care, professional development, and autonomy (clustered as aspects that enable to "act professionally") create opportunities to enhance employability.

Conclusion: Insights from this study show that job characteristics typical to the nursing profession can be linked to nurses' perceptions of employability. Also, it stems from this research that not only job characteristics but also employability are dynamic in the short run. Understanding and enhancing employability in a nursing context requires capturing these dynamics, for instance by collecting data at several points in time or by using mixed-method studies to understand employability scores within their context.

Keywords: diary study; employability; longitudinal research; nursing profession; work experiences.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

    1. Anwar M., Green J. A., Norris P., Bukhari N. I. (2017). Prospective daily diary study reporting of any and all symptoms in healthy adults in Pakistan: prevalence and response. BMJ Open 7:e014998. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-014998 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bakker A. B., Demerouti E. (2007). The job demands-resources model: state of the art. J. Manag. Psychol. 22, 309–327. doi: 10.1108/02683940710733115 - DOI
    1. Bakker A. B., Sanz-Vergel A. I. (2013). Weekly work engagement and flourishing: the role of hindrance and challenge job demands. J. Vocat. Behav. 83, 397–409. doi: 10.1016/j.jvb.2013.06.008 - DOI
    1. Bernards B., van der Voet J., van der Pas S., Groeneveld S. (2021). Organizational rules and cognitive uncertainty among public professionals: a daily diary study. Rev Public Person Admin 41, 792–813. doi: 10.1177/0734371X20943932 - DOI
    1. Bolger N., Davis A., Rafaeli E. (2003). Diary methods: capturing life as it is lived. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 54, 579–616. doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145030 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources