Browsing by Author "Hughes K-A"

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    Exploring digital interventions to facilitate coping and discomfort for nurses experiencing the menopause in the workplace: An international qualitative study.
    (John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2023-05-09) Cronin C; Bidwell G; Carey J; Donevant S; Hughes K-A; Kaunonen M; Marcussen J; Wilson R
    INTRODUCTION: The global nursing workforce is predominantly female, with a large proportion working in the 45-55 age group. Menopause is a transition for all women, and; therefore needs recognition as it can impact work performance and consequently staff turnover. BACKGROUND: Women will go through the menopause, but not all women are affected. The menopause transition presents a range of signs and symptoms both physical and psychological which can impact the quality of life and individuals' work/life balance. The nursing workforce is predominantly women that will work through the menopause transition. OBJECTIVES: The study explored perspectives on digital health interventions as strategies to support menopausal women and to understand the requirements for designing health interventions for support in the workplace. DESIGN: A qualitative explorative design. SETTINGS: Nurses working in a range of clinical settings in England, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand, Australia and USA. METHODS: Nurses (n = 48) participated in focus groups from six different countries from February 2020-June 2022 during the pandemic from a range of acute, primary care and education settings. Nurses were invited to participate to share their experiences. Thematic analysis was used. RESULTS: All participants were able to describe the physical symptoms of menopause, with some cultural and possible hemisphere differences; more noticeable was the psychological burden of menopause and fatigue that is not always recognized. Four themes were identified: Managing symptoms in the workplace; Recognition in the workplace; Menopause interventions; and Expectation versus the invisible reality. These themes revealed information that can be translated for implementation into digital health interventions. CONCLUSIONS: Managers of nursing female staff in the menopausal age range need greater awareness, and menopause education should involve everyone. Finally, our results demonstrate design attributes suitable for inclusion in digital health strategies that are aligned with likely alleviation of some of the discomforts of menopause. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.
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    Lack of awareness of nursing as a career choice for men: A qualitative descriptive study
    (John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2022-12) Guy M; Hughes K-A; Ferris-Day P
    Aims: This research aimed to identify the factors that impact why men do not view nursing as a career choice. Design: Qualitative description was utilized to capture the rich narratives and insight of participants. Methods: Through convenience sampling, nine New Zealand qualified male nurses within their first three years of practice were recruited. Semi-structured interviews were conducted between November 2019 and January 2020 via zoom from sites across New Zealand. All interviews were recorded and transcribed, with the data analysed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis. Results: The findings reflected the experiences of the research participants as they made sense of a predominantly female-dominated work environment both during their undergraduate training and prior to recruitment. The research identified two key themes: The first found that men in nursing experienced isolation due to the societal gendering of nursing influencing the participant's knowledge and understanding of what nursing was, as a career. The second theme found that for participants, nursing was not prominent in their awareness when leaving school and making career choices. Conclusion: This research indicates that nursing as a career choice for men is still underpinned by a lack of understanding of the actual role of the nurse and what nurses do, and is more supported by a societal perception that nursing is still a feminized profession. Findings can be used to make recommendations for change in the profession to strengthen diversity in the workforce and redefine the recruitment of men into nursing. Impact: This research reviewed the career choices of men in nursing and why they chose nursing as a profession. Understanding the barriers of why men do not consider nursing as a career choice assists with finding strategies in both the clinical and academic environments that can enable greater gender diversity within the nursing profession. No patient or public contribution: This applies to this research as the focus was on male registered nurses only.
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    The two-sided mirror of intent and implementation: Are HR practices perceived as a strength or weakness in the public healthcare organisation?
    (Human Resources Institute of New Zealand, 2019) Hughes K-A
    This research was based on the inherent contradiction that, organisations argue employees are their most valuable asset, registered nurses in the New Zealand public health system are treated as a cost or expense to be minimised. The aim of this research is to gain insight into how registered nurses locate and value human resource management (HRM) practices using Nichii et al.’s (2008) typology of human resources (HR) attributes. A cross-sectional survey of 7,000 registered nurses was randomly sampled in 2012 with a response rate of 13% (918 questionnaires). This research focuses on the qualitative responses in the survey examining both how registered nurses perceive the measurement of nursing work, and how these nurses perceive that management views their work. Overall, the findings indicate that nurses’ views of how management understands their nursing work is poorly understood, and this then translates into a degree of scepticism by nurses around HRM practices that include measurement.