A scale for measuring specific job demands within the health care sector: development and psychometric assessment

Earlier research has indicated that the psychological demand dimension in one of the most commonly used occupational stress models, the job-demand-control-support model, can be too generic and does not capture the multidimensionality of different job demands within health care work.

The main objective of the study was to develop and psychometrically evaluate a new job demand scale, which captures specific job demands within health care work. Further, to analyse whether a congruent component structure could be obtained in two different occupational groups, namely registered and assistant nurses. The final objective was to analyse the relationship between the new job demand scale and the dimensions in the job-demand-control-support model.

Seven hundred and ninety five registered nurses and 527 assistant nurses from three hospitals and two primary health care centres in Stockholm, Sweden participated voluntarily in the study

A questionnaire, which collected information on demographics, various job demands, job control and social support, was used in both occupational groups. Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, principal component analyses and independent samples t-test were used in the study

A congruent component structure was obtained in both occupational samples, consisting of four demand indices "pain and death", "patient and relative needs", "threats and violence" and "professional worries". The four-component solution explained 69.6% and 72.1% of the variance for registered nurses and assistant nurses, respectively. The new job demand indices also showed satisfactory internal consistencies, which ranged from .62 to .91 and had inter-item correlations, which varied from .33 to .84 in both occupational groups. The strongest relationship was shown with the psychological job demand dimension in the job-demand-control-support-model.

The scale is short and could be used to obtain information concerning different job demands that are related to the interaction with, and care of patients and their relatives as an addition to the more generic psychological demand dimension that is specified in the job-demand-control-support model.