The Job Context Index: a guide for improving the 'fit' between nurses and their work environment

Stress and burnout have reached crisis levels among hospital nurses. The authors of this paper address this problem with the development of a scale to improve the 'fit' between a nurse and his/her work environment, thereby potentially increasing satisfaction, and reducing stress and burnout. Approximately 1000 hospital nurses, randomly selected from a large eastern state, described their work in each of 10 clinical areas; their reports enabled the construction of the Job Context Index, which rank orders the 10 settings on three dimensions, including general work pressure/uncertainty, routinization of tasks, and co-worker interdependence. Nurses, as well as educators and administrators, may find their index a useful tool for matching nurses' temperaments and workstyles with the characteristics of the clinical areas in which they might be working.