Surviving an infectious disease outbreak: How does nurse calling influence performance during the COVID‐19 fight?

Aim To assess the performance of front‐line nurses, who believed they were living out their calling, during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. Background Although as a profession nursing generally requires high levels of performance, the disruption arising from an infectious disease o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Nursing Management 2021-04, Vol.29 (3), p.421-431
Main Authors: Zhou, Yan, Asante, Eric Adom, Zhuang, Yiyu, Wang, Jie, Zhu, Yue, Shen, Lihua
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
caring
Clinical Competence
Clinical nursing
COVID-19
COVID-19 - epidemiology
COVID-19 - nursing
Disease Outbreaks
Disruption
Epidemics
Female
Hospitals
Humans
Infectious diseases
living a calling
Male
Nurses
Nursing administration
nursing performance
Nursing Staff, Hospital - psychology
Nursing Staff, Hospital - standards
Occupational stress
Occupational Stress - epidemiology
Original
Pandemics
perceived supervisor support
SARS-CoV-2
Snowball sampling
Teams
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Summary:Aim To assess the performance of front‐line nurses, who believed they were living out their calling, during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic. Background Although as a profession nursing generally requires high levels of performance, the disruption arising from an infectious disease outbreak increases the work stress and decreases the performance of front‐line nurses. How this situation can be improved has yet to be thoroughly examined. Method We used a snowball sampling technique to recruit 339 nurses who were originally from outside Hubei but volunteered to join medical teams going to Hubei to tackle COVID‐19. Results Drawing on the theory of work as a calling, we found that living a calling had a positive effect on front‐line nurses’ performance through the clinical and relational care they provided. Perceived supervisor support strengthened these mediated relationships. Conclusion Our findings indicate that despite the constraints associated with pandemics, front‐line nurses who are living a calling are able to provide better clinical and relational care to infected patients, which in turn improves their performance. Implications for Nursing Management The findings of this study suggest that hospitals can introduce career educational interventions to enhance nurses’ ability to discern and live out their calling to improve their performance.
ISSN:0966-0429
1365-2834
DOI:10.1111/jonm.13181