Emergency department leaders and levels of engagement among their nursing staff
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Emergency department leaders and levels of engagement among their nursing staff

Anna Scaccia Director emergency department/trauma/emergency medical services, Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, US

Aim Researchers have begun to examine work engagement in nursing, but there is little research specific to work engagement in emergency department (ED) nurses. The erratic nature and increased requirements of EDs adds to the burden on leaders to meet patient demands while keeping staff engaged. The aim of this pilot study was to describe and explore the relationship between levels of ED registered clinical nurses’ (RNs) work engagement and age, years of experience and shift worked to determine if there are differences between ED nurses and those working in other areas and whether this information could help ED leaders in their approach to staff engagement.

Method A descriptive pilot study was used with RNs from a Midwestern urban level 1 trauma ED in the US. Participants completed an electronic survey that included demographics and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES).

Findings Participants had a Bachelor of Science in nursing or higher and 62% had five years’ or less nursing experience. UWES scores compared to national benchmark scores were average and Cronbach alpha coefficients were 0.90. Reliability for each subscale differed. Analysis found no significant difference in relation to age.

Conclusion Participants scored high in total engagement with absorption ranking highest. Evidence reinforces the need for leaders to develop positive relationships with novice nurses to foster engagement and increase tenure.

Emergency Nurse. doi: 10.7748/en.2019.e1894

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and has been checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

annascaccia@gmail.com

Conflict of interest

None declared

Scaccia A (2019) Emergency department leaders and levels of engagement among their nursing staff. Emergency Nurse. doi: 10.7748/en.2019.e1894

Published online: 22 January 2019

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