Organizational well-being of nurses and coordinators in Southeast Tuscany

Background

Organizational well-being represents a crucial element for the quality of health care services and the psychophysical health of workers. In particular, the imbalance between effort and reward, job satisfaction, burnout, and emotional hyperinvolvement are central dimensions for understanding the work dynamics of nurses and nursing coordinators. This study aims to investigate these aspects among nurser in the Local Health Authority Tuscany Southeast, stratifying the results according to role (nurse or nurse coordinator), care setting (hospital vs territorial), gender, and length of service.

Methods

A total of 273 healthcare professionals (229 nurses and 44 nurse coordinators) were involved and completed the validated Effort-Reward Imbalance (ERI), Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) questionnaires. Sociodemographic information was also collected through ad hoc questions (age, length of service, role, facility). Statistical analysis was conducted with STATA, using the Mann-Whitney test and the chi-square test.

Results

Nurses reported lower median levels of job satisfaction (27 vs 29; p = 0.031) and significantly higher levels of exertion than coordinators (9 vs 6; p < 0.001), who showed greater hyperinvolvement (4 vs 3; p = 0.002) and greater perception of reward (15 vs 13; p = 0.004). Burnout was found to be significantly more frequent in hospital helathcareworkers (29.8%) than in territorial ones (18.2%; p = 0.049). There were no statistically significant differences with respect to gender or length of service for any of the variables analyzed.

Conclusions

The study confirms the presence of significant differences in perceptions of organizational well-being between nurses and coordinators, and between hospital and territorial settings. Interventions aimed at enhancing perceived reward, sustaining the effort-reward balance, and preventing burnout appear to be key to promoting organizational health and quality of care.

Key messages

• Nurses report lower satisfaction and higher effort than coordinators, who show more emotional involvement. Targeted strategies are needed to improve the reward-effort balance across roles.

• Burnout is significantly higher in hospital settings (29.8%) compared to territorial ones (18.2%). Public health interventions must prioritize hospital staff to ensure quality of care.