Psychosocial work characteristics and trait-anxiety as predictive factors for perceived wellness of nurses at hospitals that underwent restructuring

Wellness of nurses is the key factor for a high quality of health care services and effectiveness of changes implemented by hospital restructuring initiatives. The aim was to analyze predictive factors for perceived wellness of nurses at Lithuania‘s hospitals that underwent restructuring. Material and methods. Research was conducted at 13 randomly selected Lithuania‘s hospitals that underwent restructuring. The study sample consisted of 775 nurses who had not less than a year of work experience. The survey included Perceived wellness survey (Adams et al., 1997), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults Y-2 form (Spielberger et al., 1968, 1977), and several scales developed for this research to assess psychosocial work factors and subjectively restructuring-related changes of psychosocial work factors. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, linear multiple regression and hierarchichal multiple regression were used to analyze the data. Results and conclusions. High decision authority, high perceived justice of restructuring process and subjectively restructuring-related decrease in psychosocial risk factors intensity predict high perceived wellness of nurses. Skill discretion and social support from managers are protective factors, while job insecurity is a risk factor for separate dimensions of nurses’ perceived wellness. Psychosocial work factors remain significant predictors of perceived wellness even after controlling for traitanxiety, life stressful events during the last 12 months, sociodemographic and objective work related variables. Trait-anxiety was the most important predictor of nurses’ perceived wellness. Protective factors for nurses’ wellness should be strengthened, while risk factors should be managed in the psychosocial work environment during the process of restructuring. Nurses who score high in trait-anxiety should be identified due to their increased vulnerability in the period of changes at work. Stress management training could be an effective way to protect wellness of these employees