Improving the recruitment and return of nurses and allied health professionals: a quantitative study

Abstract

The United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS) is continuing to experience recruitment and retention problems of nursing and allied health profession staff. Consequently, the need to study and understand the key factors that encourage or dissuade people to work for the NHS remains a major research and policy issue. This study provides well-focused, independent research to explore how the NHS can be made more attractive for potential new recruits and possible returners. The views of potential recruits and returners interested in working for the NHS as either a qualified nurse, physiotherapist or radiographer were explored through a postal questionnaire survey which achieved a response rate of 23%. Analysis of the results indicate that the strongest predictor of intention to work for the NHS in one of the three professions was the attitude held by respondents. These attitudes in turn were most influenced by the extent to which people perceived that NHS work as a qualified nurse, physiotherapist or radiographer offered positive features, i.e. rewarding career, teamwork and a chance to help people and to get to know them. The views of family and friends regarding working for the NHS were also important as was the belief in one's ability to secure an NHS job.

Impact of workplace violence against nurses’ thriving at work, job satisfaction and turnover intention: A cross‐sectional study

“…Excessive anxiety about their safety distracts their attention from nursing work (Yang, Spector, Chang, Gallantroman, & Powell, 2012). From the perspective of effort-reward (Coombs et al, 2007), the nature of nursing work lies in exchanging professional labour for economic rewards. During this process, nurses' self-esteem and self-attribution needs approval.…”

Why did I become a nurse? Personality traits and reasons for entering nursing

“…Recently Price undertook a meta-study of ten primary 1546 Ó 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd J A N JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING qualitative studies and identified pre-held beliefs of nursing, an idealistic view of caring and the influence of others as key factors in choice of nursing as a career (Price 2009). Other reasons as reported by numerous authors for entering nursing include vocation, rewarding career, stepping stone to another career, career security, previous work or socialization experiences, job satisfaction and the representation of nurses in the media (Foskett & Hemsley-Brown 1997, Beck 2000, Mills & Blaesing 2000, Duffield et al 2004, Day et al 2005, Coombs et al 2007, Eley et al 2010a. In all studies, caring for others is a consistently recognized factor and supports the long held stereotype that nursing is a 'caring profession' (Williams et al 2009).…”

Feminisation of the medical profession: a strategic HRM dilemma? The effects of family-friendly HR practices on female doctors' contracted working hours

“…Saltzstein et al ., 2001) or job attraction (Honeycutt and Rosen, 1997). However, these studies mostly focus on the effects on the individual level (Coombs et al ., 2007), while insights in possible counter‐effects on organisational performance could be helpful when seeking to explain the lack of uptake of family‐friendly arrangements, or establishing supportive work–home cultures (Lewis, 1997).…”