Expectation and evaluation of occupational health nursing services, as perceived by occupational health nurses, employees and employers in the United Kingdom

Abstract

A structured questionnaire was used to investigate the relationship between expectation and evaluation of occupational health nursing services as perceived by providers (nurses) and receivers (employers and employees) in the United Kingdom. The response rate was 66.55% (254) from nurses, 51.32% (194) from employees and 44.97% (170) from employers. Data from 144 triads of nurse, employer and employee were used to test 13 null hypotheses, which were all rejected. The strong positive correlation between nurses', employers' and employees' expectations and evaluations indicates that, on the whole, their expectations were met. However, there were differences in the extent to which this was so and the level of expectation varied between groups. Nurses perceived themselves as not meeting their high expectations as well in non-traditional (care-supportive) as in traditional (care-orientated) services. On the whole, employers had significantly lower expectations than nurses, except in the area of care and treatment. Employees had high expectations of preventive services, but their lower evaluations indicate that these were not met. Discussion of these and other findings suggests that employers need education on the value and scope of occupational health nursing, and a model may assist nurses' conceptual understanding of it.

Finnish occupational health nurses’ work and expertise: the clients’ perspective

“…Clients considered health promotion and secondary health care services very meaningful and useful to them, because they had the chance to obtain those services in a fast and flexible way. This result is similar to the Yoo et al . (1993) results, according to which nursing services were appreciated more than individual preventive services by employers.…”

Occupational health nurses’ perceptions of their current and future roles

“…Therefore, research into the perceptions of managers (similar to that of Lusk et al. 1989) and workers (Yoo et al. 1993), and other occupational health professionals (Hamilton 1979) is needed.…”

A Scale for Evaluating Employee Satisfaction with Nursing Care

“…Thus, employees should receive better care and have easier access to health services (Lusk, Disch, & Barkauskas, 1988;Merkouris et al, 1999;Mitchell et al, 1999;Rogers, 1993;Verbeek et al, 2001;Yoo, Ashworth, & Boore, 1993).…”

“…Expectations related to nursing care are defined as decisions made by employees about the possibilities of several events likely to occur during the course of care. The expectations can be based on either what employees believe about and want from nursing care or actual experiences (Oermann, 1999;Yoo et al, 1993). The three dimensions of the relationship between nursing care and satisfaction include (Yilmaz, 2001): l Technical and professional behaviors (i.e., a nurse must have knowledge and technical skills to provide nursing services).…”

“…Mitchell et al (1999) found that satisfaction with services and importance of services were moderately high; the three dimensions related to interpersonal relationships and communication (reliability, responsiveness, and assurance) had the highest means in relation to the degree of satisfaction with and importance of nursing services. Yoo et al (1993) performed a comparative study of how employees, employers, and nurses perceive occupational health and found a strong relationship between employees' expectations of and evaluations of occupational health services.…”