RESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: Nurses are at a high risk of developing mental health problems due to exposure to work environment risk factors. Previous research in this area has only examined a few factors within nurses' work environments, and those factors were not conceptualized with the goal of improving workplace mental health. The purpose of this study is to identify the most important work environment predictors of nurse mental health using a comprehensive and theoretically grounded measure based on the National Standard of Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. METHODS: This is an exploratory cross-sectional survey study of nurses in British Columbia, Canada. For this study, responses from a convenience sample of 4029 actively working direct care nurses were analyzed using random forest regression methods. Key predictors include 13 work environment factors. Study outcomes include depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), burnout and life satisfaction. RESULTS: Overall, healthier reports of work environment conditions were associated with better nurse mental health. More specifically balance, psychological protection and workload management were the most important predictors of depression, anxiety, PTSD and emotional exhaustion. While engagement, workload management, psychological protection and balance were the most important predictors of depersonalization, engagement was the most important predictor of personal accomplishment. Balance, psychological protection and engagement were the most important predictors of life satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS: Routine assessment with standardized tools of nurses' work environment conditions and mental health is an important, evidence-based organizational intervention. This study suggests nurses' mental health is particularly influenced by worklife balance, psychological protection and workload management.
RESUMEN
'Legacy Mentors' are nurses aged 55 or older with a wealth of knowledge and passion to share with other nurses. Finding ways to capture their wisdom, disseminate their expertise, and potentially retain them longer is critical. As part of an innovative Educator Pathway project in two health authorities in British Columbia, Canada, nurses with up to 40 years of experience proposed to share their wisdom and translate their expertise for the next generation of nurses. The Legacy Mentor Project involved 29 nurses who developed projects to share knowledge with students, novice and experienced nurses in their work settings. The project included an orientation workshop to facilitate project start-up, a mid-way workshop for sharing progress, and a celebration event in September 2009 which highlighted their learning and final outcomes in. Project evaluation through surveys, focus groups and interviews revealed that the nurses' expertise was validated, suggesting that the translation of expertise by re-energized nurses is a strategy with potential to enhance retention of our most experienced nurses while also enhancing practice learning environments. Unexpected outcomes were reciprocal learning and changing practice of nursing peers through modelling and discussion. This paper will describe the process and outcomes of this pilot project, including description of the projects completed by the Legacy Mentors.