Journal of Nursing & Care

The relationship among nurses’ work practice environment, organizational commitment, and work engagement was explored in this study. A Descriptive-correlation with modified qualitative validation was the research design utilized in the study. One hundred thirty-eight (138) Emergency Department (ED) staff nurses who have been working in the ED for more than six months in 13 tertiary hospitals in northern Philippines answered the questionnaires. The sample size was calculated using the G*Power® 3.1.9.2 program. Simple random sampling was used in selecting the respondents from May to August 2015. The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index, the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were the tools used to obtain the data. Data were analyzed using mean, Pearson’s r Correlation, and multiple regression. In general, ED staff nurses describe their work practice environment in the Emergency Department as good. ED staff nurses are slightly committed to their department. ED staff nurses are highly engaged in their work. There is a weak and insignificant relationship between the work practice environment and organizational commitment, work practice environment and work engagement and organizational commitment and work engagement of nurses in the ED. Work practice environment significantly influences the work engagement of nurses in the ED, while organizational commitment does not significantly do so. The results of this study offer further inputs in the discourse regarding the relationship between the quality of the work practice environment, organizational commitment, and work engagement. The workplace should address any or all of the dimensions of opportunity, information, resources, and support to increase commitment and engagement.

The emotions of childhood are intense and difficult to control, but over the years, they are mixed and moulded into more subtle and expressed feelings full of meaning and under cognitive control. During this process, people use certain defense mechanisms to deal with the pressure of their emotions, or deceive themselves about the actual conditions so that they can view reality as non-threatening. While the community’s attitude towards people who live with a mental, physical or emotional disability or those who have been abused has been ranging from disregard, rejection and stigmatization to apathy; for health professionals and families of traumatized children, there seemed to be little opportunity to escape from the emotional and physical effects of being face to face with reality. Suggestions are that compassion fatigue could be due to psychological and physiological responses when working with and caring for traumatized people. A problem was identified during visits to the clinical facilities, when despite four years of exposure to general nursing, midwifery and community health; psychosocial nursing students expressed their fears of being traumatized by their experiences. Despite theoretical knowledge and practical training, they seemed to be in a state of emotional exhaustion. The question was asked: are nursing students emotionally prepared to work with severely emotionally, intellectually or physically traumatized children in the community? The qualitative, descriptive study and psychodynamic approach was to explore and describe final year psychosocial nursing students’ reflections and experiences during clinical placement with children who are traumatized by accidental or non-accidental injury or abuse. A purposive sample comprised of written and marked narratives from psychosocial reflective journals of 16 final (4th) year students until saturation of information was reached. Thematic analysis of the written narratives highlighted an emotional rollercoaster of feelings, ethical and professional conflict between the abused and being the abuser.

The aim of this study was to learn from the lived experiences of children who were diagnosed with type 1diabetes using photo elicitation. Five participants were chosen from the endocrinology clinic at Holston Medical Group in Kingsport, Tennessee. The participants were asked to take photographs that illustrated aspects of their experiences growing up with type 1 diabetes. The number of photographs taken was at the discretion of each individual participant. Interviews with each participant were conducted utilizing prepared open-ended questions. All participants completed the project. Some common themes that emerged are: the perception of a life changing experience; lack of understanding from school staff and coaches; feeling different from friends; embarrassment; no plan or structure during the transition period; belief that diabetes education focused more on the negatives; and thoughts that diabetes education tells you what to do, but not how to do it. The information obtained from this study supports the need for education for all individuals who are involved in the life of a child with type 1 diabetes. It also supports the notion that education for children with type 1 diabetes and their parents should be on-going instead of a one-time event. This study is limited due to the small amount of participants, and further research is needed to help providers give quality patient centered care to this population.

Background: A descriptive correlational study was conducted to investigate the disaster-related experience, perception, and core competency of nurses in South Korea. Methods: Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire given to 163 nurses working in tertiary hospitals in Seoul, Korea. The questionnaire was developed based on the frame of Disaster Nursing Competencies by International Council of Nurses (ICN) and Emergency Preparedness Questionnaire (EPIQ). Results: In a 5-point scale, the awareness of nurses for disaster events, and the importance of education for disaster nursing were 3.93 ± 0.91 and 3.63 ± 0.93, respectively. Among ICN core competencies on perceived importance in disaster nursing, “Risk reduction, disease prevention and health promotion and psychological care” was scored highest, whereas “Policy development and planning, communication and information sharing” was the lowest. The higher level of awareness of a disaster was related to the higher level of perceived importance of education. Conclusion: The results support that the level of awareness of a disaster is a factor affecting the importance of education in disaster nursing. Thus, educational programs focusing on practical topics in disaster nursing should be developed for continuous training to increase the core competency and the understanding of disaster nursing.