Version 1
: Received: 1 October 2024 / Approved: 1 October 2024 / Online: 2 October 2024 (10:41:23 CEST)
How to cite:
Connelly, D. M.; Guitar, N. A.; Van Belle, T. A.; McKay, S. M.; King, E. C. Factors Influencing Nurses’ Decisions to Leave or Remain in the Home and Community Care Sector During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Preprints2024, 2024100107. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0107.v1
Connelly, D. M.; Guitar, N. A.; Van Belle, T. A.; McKay, S. M.; King, E. C. Factors Influencing Nurses’ Decisions to Leave or Remain in the Home and Community Care Sector During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Preprints 2024, 2024100107. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0107.v1
Connelly, D. M.; Guitar, N. A.; Van Belle, T. A.; McKay, S. M.; King, E. C. Factors Influencing Nurses’ Decisions to Leave or Remain in the Home and Community Care Sector During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Preprints2024, 2024100107. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0107.v1
APA Style
Connelly, D. M., Guitar, N. A., Van Belle, T. A., McKay, S. M., & King, E. C. (2024). Factors Influencing Nurses’ Decisions to Leave or Remain in the Home and Community Care Sector During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0107.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Connelly, D. M., Sandra M McKay and Emily C King. 2024 "Factors Influencing Nurses’ Decisions to Leave or Remain in the Home and Community Care Sector During the COVID-19 Pandemic" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202410.0107.v1
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Home and community care (HCC) nurses experienced increased occupational challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic including increased workloads, job stressors and occupational risks like virus exposure. The objective was to elucidate what factors influenced nurses’ decisions to stay in their role, take a temporary leave, or exit HCC during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: A secondary analysis of data collected using a cross-sectional online open survey distributed among HCC Registered Practical Nurses across Ontario between June and September 2022 was conducted. The factors contributing to nurses’ decision to remain in HCC, temporarily leave, or exit the sector were evaluated using multinomial logistic regression (p < 0.05).
Results: Of the 664 participants, 54% (n=357) stayed in the HCC sector, 30% (n=199) temporarily left, and 16% (n=108) exited the sector. Nurses with greater years of experience working in HCC and those who avoided infection were more likely to stay in their role in HCC, which may reflect strong relationships with long-term clients, opportunity and accumulated experience to increase income, and maintained good health. Nurses with higher levels of emotional intelligence were more likely to take leaves and exit HCC, suggesting that stepping away may have been a strategy to safeguard themselves.
Conclusions: HCC leadership should prioritize the development of solutions to support nurses in the HCC workforce, including those with fewer years’ experience. This may promote nurses’ participation in the sector, particularly during times of heightened occupational challenges and crises like COVID-19.
Keywords
home care; community care; nurses; retention; COVID-19, survey; emotional intelligence; burnout
Subject
Public Health and Healthcare, Nursing
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
