THE PERCEIVED IMPACT OF COMMITTEE PARTICIPATION ON RETENTION AND JOB SATISFACTION OF STAFF NURSES.
Contributors: Fielding Institute (Santa Barbara, Calif.)
Published: 1994
Number of pages: 213
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Business Administration, Management.; Sociology, Industrial and Labor Relations.; Health Sciences, Health Care Management.; Political Science, Public Administration.
Description: In 1989, in response to the nursing shortage and much literature on dissatisfiers for practising nurses, the Ontario Minister of Health introduced a new regulation (Regulation 518(83)(89)) to the Public Hospitals Act, requiring that staff nurses and nurse managers be represented on any and all administrative, operational, financial and planning committees within the hospital. While involvement of nurse managers on such committees was not new, the widespread participation of staff nurses certainly was.

From a review of the literature, the researcher developed a model in which "mental image" was the critical descriptor of staff nurses' committee experience. In the model, it was proposed that the following factors would influence the nurses' mental image of their committee experience directly: (1) professional experience of the staff nurse; (2) committee "fluency" of the staff nurse; (3) the staff nurse's decisional condition; (4) committee effectiveness; and (5) committee influence. The model also suggested that a number of other factors might or might not be influential. These other factors included: (6) personal attributes of the nurse; (7) structural attributes of the hospital; and (8) structure of the committee itself. And finally, the model proposed that the nurses' mental image of their committee experience would directly affect their job satisfaction and organizational/professional retention.

A large-scale study was conducted to test the model. The sample comprised 423 staff nurse committee members representing the range of hospital sizes, types (teaching vs. non-teaching) and geographic regions of the province. The methodology was a survey, utilizing computer assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) technology.

The results of the study are significant in several respects. Specifically, the findings: (1) are consistent with previous literature, in that they demonstrate a strong and positive correlation between committee participation and job satisfaction; (2) extend the existing literature by providing new and statistically significant data about nurses' mental image of committee experience, and about the factors which may enhance or inhibit the formation of a positive mental image; (3) support active involvement of staff nurses in committee work; and (4) offer a number of concrete suggestions which staff nurses and nurse administrators may implement to improve the quality of committee participation.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: B, page: 1939.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE FIELDING INSTITUTE, 1994.

School code: 0565.