Critical Care Nurses' Reasons for Working or Not Working Overtime

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Critical Care Medicine

Background:

• Registered nurses globally are increasingly working overtime.
• Critical care settings face high patient volumes and acuity, demanding specialized staff.
• Overtime is prevalent in critical care due to unpredictable patient loads and staffing needs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the motivations behind critical care nurses working overtime.
• To understand the factors influencing critical care nurses' decisions to decline overtime.

Main Methods:

• Conducted semistructured interviews with 28 frontline nurses.
• Included nurses from 11 critical care units in Ontario, Canada.
• Employed Thorne's interpretive description methodology for analysis.

Main Results:

• Primary reasons for working overtime: financial gain (96%), helping colleagues (68%), continuity of care (39%), and career development (39%).
• Key reasons for not working overtime: fatigue (50%), prior plans (71%), and inadequate notice (61%).

Conclusions:

• Study offers novel insights into Canadian critical care nurses' overtime decisions.
• Findings extend existing literature on nurse overtime.
• Further research needed on administrative decision-making regarding overtime.