Incentives for nurse employment

Area of Science:

• Nursing workforce research
• Organizational psychology
• Human resource management

Background:

• Understanding nurse employment incentives is crucial for retention and recruitment.
• March and Simon's theory provides a framework for analyzing inducements.
• Differentiating employed and non-employed nurses' perceptions is key.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify perceived employment incentives for nurses.
• To compare incentive rankings between employed and non-employed nurses.
• To explore if rankings differentiate between these nurse groups.

Main Methods:

• A 47-item instrument surveyed a 5% random sample of registered nurses (RNs).
• Analysis focused on similarities and differences in incentive rankings.
• Factor structure analysis was used to compare groups.

Main Results:

• Similar incentive factor structures were found for employed and non-employed RNs.
• Part-employed nurses' factor structure showed overlap with both groups.
• The instrument explained little variance, suggesting other factors are influential.

Conclusions:

• Registered nurses, regardless of employment status, perceive similar employment incentives.
• Professionalism is a significant area for developing future incentive-related items.
• Further research is needed to identify additional variables influencing nurse employment decisions.