[Motivation of intensive care nurses to remain loyal to their profession-a meaning-centred approach]

Due to an increasing workload and the resulting moral distress, many intensive care nurses have left their profession. Much of the literature on this topic deals with extrinsic reasons for leaving the profession and the occurrence of burnout syndrome.

This article asks positive questions about the reasons why intensive care nurses remain loyal to their profession and about finding meaning and intrinsic motivation in intensive care.

The article builds upon a scoping review of the intrinsic motivation of intensive care nurses and links the findings with current literature and ongoing projects.

The previous scoping review describes one overarching theme (meaning) and five sub-themes: spirituality, sense of pride and joy, personal relationships, moral responsibility, and thriving. The five sub-themes correlate with each other and enable meaning to be found in work.

When intensive care nurses can realise their values in their work, this triggers emotions such as joy and pride and enables them to remain intrinsically motivated. Emotions are also the medium through which meaning can be experienced as emotionally reflected insight. For these mechanisms to work, the three basic needs for autonomy, competence and connectedness must be fulfilled by the institution, with suitable organisational and structural framework conditions. The Magnet® concept of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC; Oakbrook Terrace, IL, USA) is a good example of how this can be achieved.