Exploring Motivational Strategies Used to Provide Effective Nursing Care Within the United Kingdom
Abstract
Nurses play a critical role within hospital and community settings as they often interact with patients while providing healthcare services to those eligible for them. When planning and delivering high-quality care, nurses are motivated by internal or external factors. Therefore, there is a need to examine the strategies that have been effective in ensuring that nurses have a positive outlook towards their work while reducing the levels of demotivation.
This narrative review seeks to provide details on the motivational strategies that have boosted nursing care within hospital settings in the United Kingdom. To achieve its main objective, the review considers the intrinsic and extrinsic factors while assessing how they can be useful in improving nurses’ service delivery.
The process of conducting the review began with the formulation of the main research question and objective with reference to the population-exposure-outcome framework. The reviewer then conducted a literature search on four primary databases, namely Medline (Medical Literature Online), The Cochrane Library, The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and ProQuest. The search for relevant literature involved keywords and clear inclusion and exclusion criteria developed by the researcher. The selected articles were evaluated using a critical appraisal form to assess the risk of bias and applicability of the results in practice. The search process yielded fifteen peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2020.
The main finding was that although nurses are motivated by intrinsic factors to join the nursing profession, extrinsic motivational factors play a critical role in maintaining the intrinsic motivation levels. The intrinsic motivational strategies that were identified in the review include personal control over work, work-life balance, and internal emotional regulation. The extrinsic motivational strategies that were identified by the analysed studies were nurses’ relationship with patients and co-workers, financial rewards and performance-based incentives, leadership and managerial support, and work environment. While it was noted that nurses have a high preference for financial rewards, it was suggested that nurse managers and the overall hospital leadership should revisit their current employee motivation strategies and provide extra support to their subordinates to enhance their care-planning intentions and ensure quality patient care.