Short Communication - (2021) Volume 11, Issue 4
Received: 19-Jul-2021
Published:
09-Aug-2021
, DOI: 10.37421/2223-5833.2021.11.410
Citation: Bhattacharya, Tarapranav and Garg N. "Nurses Job Satisfaction and Appraisal What Difference have COVID Made?." Arabian J Bus Manag Review 11 (2021) : 410.
Copyright: © 2021 Bhattacharya T, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution license which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Patient’s advocate-the Nursing fraternity has always been the rock wall of healthcare system. The team led by Florence Nightingale had much to the calibre! The professional ethics of continuous care for sick, injured, disabled and dying has been guiding the mainstream sufficiently well. Came the time and nobody asked them. Then came a time, they stood as saviours… it’s a full circle! This article draws the line of what in HRM issues flagged off for the nurses during the SARS COv 2 infection, the global pandemic.
Job satisfaction • Job appraisal • Nurses • COVID-19
A patient of head injury with altered sensorium was brought to the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital. The difficult night passed in the Intensive care unit with the intensivist, surgeons and nursing staff struggling to stabilize the patient after an emergency burr hole to drain the Sub Dural hematoma amidst a host of other patients there. A day or two passed and the patient was now conscious, opening eyes, vital parameters showing normalcy. The monitors were a solace to the untiring eyes of the nursing station. Suddenly a distress flagged off, blood pressure rising, patient trying to get out- may be violent? People made their way with possibilities of rising intracranial tension/ impending hypoxia/ cardiac ailment/ etccentral line/ vasopressors/ intubation!! Interjected the head nurse, The Urinal did the magic. The urge for urination with senses returning back that was the reason for instigating the sympathetic response. The patient advocate at the best.
Nurses are the patients’ advocate-by far the best. Florence Nightingale advocated for the wounded soldiers of the Crimean War, cleaner environments to prevent infections [1]. The similar efforts were noted by Clara Barton and other nurses during the American Civil War (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Models of nurse advocacy.
The obedient cadre with course of time turned towards a more mature one with time taking turn in the course of development of accountability, [2]. The exact chronology at which the ‘obedience to physician turned into ‘advocacy to patients ‘is not exactly recorded. What is evident that terms like ‘obeying physician orders’ disappeared from literature of International Council of Nurses in 1970s [3]. And a subsequent introduction followed suit in “The Code of Ethics” published by American Nursing Association in 1976 read- ‘nurses being required to protect a patient from any incompetent, unethical or illegal practice of any person’ [4].
The reasons which formed the background of this major stance of Nurses becoming patients’ advocate were:
• Patients perceived powerless
• Patients’ wishes considered contrary to their interests [5].
• Healthcare workers at dipping point
• Therapeutic relationship [6].
• Constitutive pattern of safeguarding patients [7].
Job Satisfaction is the quotient of how contented a worker is in the organization [8-10]. Working through thick and thin- the matrix organization- hospital is a tight rope walk. Managing personal content, professional ethics, balance at workplace with a congenial atmosphere at home front, not to forget the career progression is what will count for a picture perfect. Dwelling on the organizational culture, professionalism and the counter balance of Role conflict, ambiguity, Intention to leave stands the fulcrum of Job Satisfaction [8]. The tradeoff between job hop-retention in the hospital has to be weighed upon by each and every healthcare worker.
Do Nurses really Matter? Never raised such a question. But yes, as goes the COVID- a classical VUCA
Volatile health matrix Uncertainty of life, job, death Complex situation at hospitals, Ambiguous existence alas. The social fabric awe struck by distancing -physical/ emotional is probably once in a lifetime. The advocate of the patients is found struggling with career development, occupational stress and General happiness [9,11].
Agile leadership is what the requirement of the hour is healthcare managers need to evolve into leaders:
Anticipating Change and initiate appropriate action
Generate Confidence in the team Competencies of leaders is yet another topic by itself guiding us through these turbulent times. To infuse hope in these times of COVID, I quote Charles Tindley
