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Executive Summary
* Prior studies of factors influencing nursing satisfaction have demonstrated the effects of job content, work environment, and communication on overall satisfaction.
* This study explores the frequency, relative magnitude, and nature of the hassles that can significantly affect the quality of nursing care, work flow, and nurse retention.
* Nurses (121) from inpatient and outpatient departments participated in focus groups to explore the hassles and Stressors encountered in the work place.
* Social/environmental hassles were reported most frequently by both inpatient and out-patient groups including examples of interdepartmental coordination of supplies and services and environmental noise.
* Operational hassles were cited second including overwhelming work assignments, staffing shortages, and missing or dysfunctional equipment.
* The authors clearly outline opportunities to reduce hassles and subsequently reduce nurse dissatisfaction, burnout, and ultimately turnover.
A hassle is defined as "a state of confusion, turmoil; an annoying or troublesome concern" (Merriam-Webster, 1998). Within their work environments, nurses face numerous daily hassles that affect their work lives. These hassles often represent functional tasks necessary for delivering quality patient care but often are tasks that are not officially assigned to nursing. Hassles interfere with nurses' work by disrupting or delaying their ability to do their "real" work. Ultimately, nurses perceive that it is their responsibility to deal with these hassles in some way to ensure that patients receive the necessary care. Hence, hassles affect quality of patient care.
Hassles are tasks rarely captured by workload measurement systems. These hassles are generally not dealt with by other professionals and/or hospital administration, leading nurses to believe there are demands imposed on them by the "system" over which they have little or no control. Feelings of frustration and stress negatively affect nurses' work lives which can lead to dissatisfaction with work, burnout, and a greater turnover of nurses within organizations (Byrnes, 1982; Hayes, 1994; Stelling, 1991).
As society is currently facing a serious shortage of nurses and is failing to recruit and retain an adequate number of nurses within the profession, it is essential to study the work that nurses do and the hassles that significantly prevent them from performing effectively and efficiently. Until we know exactly what composes nurses' work and what affects their work lives, we will not be...