Group cohesion and social support of the nurses in a special unit and a general unit in Korea

To identify the degree of group cohesion and social support of nurses in special and general units in hospitals in Korea, and to compare group cohesion and social support between the two groups.

The level of commitment nurses have to their organizations has been shown to correlate with work group cohesion and social support.

The participants were 1751 nurses who were working in Korean hospitals. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and were analysed using SAS. The statistical methods included: descriptive statistics, t-test, anova and Pearson's correlation coefficients.

Group cohesion of nurses on special wards was significantly higher than for nurses on general wards. No significant difference was found between types of units in terms of social support. The degree of group cohesion was significantly different in terms of the respondents' clinical experience, position, religion, job satisfaction, number of supportive superiors and number of supportive peers. A statistically significant correlation was found between group cohesion scores and degree of social support.

Hospital management can accomplish their goals more effectively through knowledge of the level of group cohesion, superior support and peer support for nursing staff in accordance with unit specialty.