Workplace culture among operating room nurses

Abstract

Aims

To investigate the workplace culture in the Operating Room (OR) environment and the factors associated with it.

Background

In health care, the workplace culture affects the delivery and experience of care. The OR can be a stressful practice environment, where nurses might have occasionally either job stress or job satisfaction based on their competence.

Method

A quantitative cross-sectional approach was used. The study consisted of 96 Finnish OR nurses. A Nursing Context Index instrument was used to obtain data by way of an electronic questionnaire.

Results

The primary role and working unit of respondents were the main components relating to workplace culture, and especially to job stress. Nurse anaesthetists were found to be slightly more stressed than scrub nurses. In local hospitals, job stress related to workload was perceived less than in university hospitals (P = 0.001). In addition, OR nurses in local hospitals were more satisfied with their profession (P = 0.007), particularly around issues concerning adequate staffing and resources (P = 0.001).

Conclusions and implications for nursing management

It is essential that nurse managers learn to recognise the different expressions of workplace culture. In particular, this study raises a need to recognise the factors that cause job stress to nurse anaesthetists.