Nursing work and the implications of "the second shift"

Recently the profession of nursing has been greatly concerned with the recruitment and retention of nurses. Provincial studies have indicated that the problem is multifaceted and very complex. It is not enough merely to raise wages. Another factor which has major implications for the retention of female nurses is the relationship of the work married women do at home to the paid work they do in nursing. Hochschild's (1989) research on the "Second Shift" is presented in this article to illustrate the need for nursing administrators to calculate into the equation of recruitment and retention, the impact of the "second shift."