Critical care nurses' reasons for working or not working overtime

Lobo, Vanessa M.; Ploeg, Jenny; Fisher, Anita L.; Peachey, Gladys; Akhtar-Danesh, Noori

Critical care nurses' reasons for working or not working overtime

Files

Access Instruction 46.pdf (103.68 KB)

Date

2018

Authors

Publisher

American Association of Critical Care Nurses

Abstract

BACKGROUND Around the world, registered nurses are working increasing amounts of overtime. This is particularly true in critical care environments, which experience unpredictable fluctuations in patient volume and acuity, combined with a need for more specialized nurses. OBJECTIVE To explore critical care nurses' reasons for working or not working overtime. METHODS A semistructured interview guide was used to interview 28 frontline nurses from 11 critical care units in Ontario, Canada. Analysis was guided by Thorne's interpretive description methodology. RESULTS Participants' reasons for working overtime included (1) financial gain (96% of participants); (2) helping and being with colleagues (68%); (3) continuity for nurses and patients (39%); and (4) accelerated career development (39%). Their reasons for not working overtime were (1) feeling tired and tired of being at work (50%); (2) having established plans (71%); and (3) not receiving enough notice (61%). CONCLUSIONS Findings from this study provide important variations and extension of existing literature on the topic, and appear to be the first reported in Canadian critical care units. Additional research is required to understand administrative decision-making processes that lead to the use of overtime. © 2018 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

Description

This article is not available at CUD collection. The version of scholarly record of this article is published in Critical Care Nurse (2018), available online at: https://doi.org/10.4037/ccn2018616.

Keywords

Adult, Article, Decision making, Human, Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Nurse, Ontario, Canada, Semi structured interview, Female, Intensive care nursing, Male, Middle aged, Nursing staff, Organization and management, Personnel management, Psychology

Citation

Lobo, V. M., Ploeg, J., Fisher, A., Peachey, G., & Akhtar-Danesh, N. (2018). Critical care nurses’ reasons for working or not working overtime. Critical Care Nurse, 38(6), 47–57. https://doi.org/10.4037/ccn2018616

URI

http://dx.doi.org/10.4037/ccn2018616
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12519/46

Collections

Department of Environmental Health Sciences

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