A systematic review of effort‐reward imbalance among health workers

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to systematically collate effort-reward imbalance (ERI) rates among health workers internationally and to assess gender differences. The effort-reward (ER) ratio ranges quite widely from 0.47 up to 1.32 and the ERI rate from 3.5% to 80.7%. Many studies suggested that health workers contribute more than they are rewarded, especially in Japan, Vietnam, Greece, and Germany-with ERI rates of 57.1%, 32.3%, 80.7%, and 22.8% to 27.6%, respectively. Institutions can utilize systems such as the new appraisal and reward system, which is based on performance rather than the traditional system, seniority, which creates a more competitive working climate and generates insecurity. Additionally, an increased workload and short stay patients are realities for workers in a health care environment, while the structure of human resources for health care remains inadequate. Gender differences within the ER ratio can be explained by the continued impact of traditional gender roles on attitudes and motivations that place more pressure to succeed for men rather than for women. This systematic review provides some valued evidence for public health strategies to improve the ER balance among health workers in general as well as between genders in particular. An innovative approach for managing human resources for health care is necessary to motivate and value contributions made by health workers.

Evaluating effort-reward imbalance among nurses in emergency departments: a cross-sectional study in China

“…There was a correlation between gender and the occurrence of ERI [26]. Our study showed that male ED nurses were more likely to experience ERI than the female nurses, which might be because male nurses often undertook more work in clinical practice [27].…”

Symptoms in Health Care Workers during the COVID-19 Epidemic. A Cross-Sectional Survey

“…Occupational stress was measured using Siegrist's effort/reward imbalance (ERI) model, which has been extensively used in HCWs [29][30][31]. The short form [32], Italian version [33], of the ERI questionnaire [34] is composed of 10 questions ranging on a 4-point Likert scale from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree".…”

Berufliche Gratifikationskrisen im Rettungsdienst – Eine Querschnittstudie zu Häufigkeit und Einflussfaktoren bei hauptamtlich tätigem Rettungsdienstpersonal

“…Die Aussagekraft des Gratifikationskrisenmodells wird in ver schiedenen Arbeiten erkennbar: Nguyen et al [8] beschreiben in einem systematischen Review die Heterogenität des Auftretens von Gratifikationskrisen bei Mitarbeitern in verschiedenen Gesund heitssystemen. Die Bedeutung von Stress in Notaufnahmen für die Entstehung von Gratifikationskrisen ist in einigen Studien belegt [9].…”