Louise Tourigny
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, USA
Title: Occupational mental health among hospital nurses in China and India
Biography
Biography: Louise Tourigny
Abstract
This presentation focuses on the occupational mental health and job attitudes of hospital nurses in China and India. It presentsrnanalyses enlightening how job stress, emotional exhaustion, absenteeism, organizational commitment, turnover intentionrnand job satisfaction are a function of understaff ed units and shift work. A cross-sectional study method was employed to collectrnthe data using a survey instrument that was identical in content in both countries. Th e survey was fi rst developed in English andrnthen translated to and back-translated from the language in which the survey was administered to ensure accuracy of meaning.rnWe obtained 550 completed questionnaires from Chinese nurses and 683 from Indian nurses. Descriptive statistics and graphicrnillustrations are used in order to compare the variables between countries. Regressions are employed to analyze the impact of jobrnstress and emotional exhaustion on job attitudes while comparing across shift s and levels of understaffi ng. In China, emotionalrnexhaustion has a much stronger impact on turnover intention and job satisfaction when nurses work on fi xed shift and inrnunderstaff ed units. Absence is associated with lower organizational commitment among fi xed shift nurses. In India, nurses whornwork rotating shift s have lower levels of commitment as their job stress increases. Rotating shift nurses use absence as an indicatorrnof a decrease in organizational commitment. Nurses on fi xed shift report lower job satisfaction when working understaff ed andrnexperiencing high job stress and high emotional exhaustion. Findings are discussed in light of the current shortage of nursesrnin Asia. Recommendations regarding the role of Human Resources in managing the occupational mental health of nurses arernprovided. Avenues for future research are off ered.
