Building a Taxonomy to Understand Health Care Worker's Response to Workplace 'Pressure' in Complex, Volatile and Emergency Situations.

This research aims to better understand performance under pressure as experienced by health and emergency staff in the workplace. Three basic questions underpin the work: (1) how do health and emergency workers experience and make sense of the 'pressures' entailed in their jobs? (2) What impacts do these pressures have on their working lives and work performance, both positively and negatively? (3) Can we develop a useful explanatory model for 'working under pressure' in complex, volatile and emergency situations? The present article addresses the first question regarding the nature of pressure; a subsequent article will address the question of its impact on performance. Using detailed interviews with workers in a range of roles and from diverse settings across Ecuador, our analysis aims to better understand the genesis of pressure, how people respond to it and to gain insights into managing it more effectively, especially with a view to reducing workplace errors and staff burnout.

Decision-making under pressure: medical errors in uncertain and dynamic environments.

Objective This paper provides a narrative overview of the literature concerning clinical decision-making processes when staff come under pressure, particularly in uncertain, dynamic and emergency situations. Methods Studies between 1980 and 2015 were analysed using a six-phase thematic analysis framework to achieve an in-depth understanding of the complex origins of medical errors that occur when people and systems are under pressure and how work pressure affects clinical performance and patient outcomes. Literature searches were conducted using a Summons Search Service platform; search criteria included a variety of methodologies, resulting in the identification of 95 papers relevant to the present review.

Nursing students' belongingness and workplace satisfaction: Quantitative findings of a mixed methods study.

Background: The relationship between nursing students' belongingness and workplace satisfaction has received limited attention in the literature to date.

Aim: The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between, and factors that may influence final semester nursing students' need to belong, sense of belonging and workplace satisfaction while on clinical placements.

Methods: A cross-national longitudinal multiphase explanatory sequential mixed methods study underpinned by a pragmatic theoretical framework was used for this study.

Successful linking of patient records between hospital services and general practice to facilitate integrated care in a hospital and health service in south-east Queensland.

This brief paper describes a recent exercise undertaken within a hospital and health service in south-east Queensland to attempt to link patient records between general practice and hospital services. It describes the technical and governance processes undertaken to achieve this link and the challenges experienced to date in linking the two data sources.

Establishing Policy Foundations and Regulatory Systems to Enhance Nursing Practice in the United Arab Emirates.

In 2009, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) established a Nursing and Midwifery Council with a mandate to develop standards for the registration and regulation of nursing and midwifery and to strengthen the nursing and midwifery workforce. Priorities included workforce Emiratization and the development of regulatory standards to support advanced and speciality nursing practice and new models of care-particularly for the management of noncommunicable diseases. This article provides background, context for, and best practice inputs to the effort to provide one unified framework of nursing regulation and licensure across the whole of the UAE.

From leader to leadership: clinician managers and where to next?

Individual clinician leadership is at the forefront of health reforms in Australia as well as overseas with many programs run by health departments (and hospitals) generally focus on the development of individual leaders. This paper argues, along with others, that leadership in the clinician management context cannot be understood from an individualistic approach alone. Clinician managers, especially in the ranks of doctors, are usually described as 'hybrid-professional managers' as well as reluctant leaders for whom most leadership theories do not easily apply.

Treating an unhealthy organisational culture: the implications of the Bundaberg Hospital Inquiry for managerial ethical decision making.

This paper explores the interplay between individual values, espoused organisational values and the values of the organisational culture in practice in light of a recent Royal Commission in Queensland, Australia, which highlighted systematic failures in patient care. The lack of congruence among values at these levels impacts upon the ethical decision making of health managers. The presence of institutional ethics regimes such as the Public Sector Ethics Act 1994 (Qld) and agency codes of conduct are not sufficient to counteract the negative influence of informal codes of practice that undermine espoused organisational values and community standards.

Self-reported perceptions of Registered Nurses working in Australian hospitals.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to develop an understanding of work environments by analysing the perceptions of a sample of Registered Nurses (RNs).

Background: Within the context of high staff turnover and a shortage of nurses in the health workforce, it is important that we understand how nurses perceive their work context and view the organisational factors that influence their attitudes towards their workplace.

Methods: Data was collected using a 160-question survey instrument seeking information from RNs in relation to work and perceptions of the work environment and the organisation.

Nursing morale: predictive variables among a sample of registered nurses in Australia.

Aim: This study investigates the determinants of morale among Registered Nurses in Queensland, Australia.

Background: In light of the public discussions on the issues facing the future of nursing, it is critical to understand the factors that influence morale.

Methods: A 160-question instrument sought information from Registered Nurses on their perceptions of 'self', work and morale.

Nursing morale: what does the literature reveal?

There is increasing attention to nursing workforce issues such as recruitment, retention, turnover, workplace health and safety issues and their impact on quality patient care. A number of these problems have been linked to poor morale. While there has been a lack of consensus on the determinants of morale, it is clear that the outcomes of poor morale not only add considerable cost to the organisation but also impact negatively on patient care.