Nurses’ well-being and implications for human resource management: A systematic literature review

Abstract

As the largest workforce to provide patient care in the healthcare industry, nurses’ well-being issues have attracted increasing research and practical attention. Extant studies have identified diverse causes of nurses’ poor states of well-being. However, little research has offered a holistic evaluation that brings cross-level factors together to untangle the complexity of nurses’ well-being. Current literature has yet to capture the different but inter-connected nature of three dimensions of nurses’ well-being (health, happiness, and relationships). In 2020 and 2021, we conducted a systematic search of various academic databases. Based on a systematic review of 91 articles published between 1994 and 2020, we have created a multi-perspective, multi-level, and multi-faceted model of nurses’ well-being. In doing so, we contribute to contemporary literature in three ways. First, based on a combination of the job demands-resources (JDR) model and social exchange theory, we provide a comprehensive understanding of multi-level factors influencing nurses’ well-being. Second, we identify three different but inter-linked facets of nurses’ well-being (health-, happiness-, and relationship-related well-being). Third, we adopt various perspectives to identify the process through which well-being-oriented human resource management (HRM) enhances nurses’ well-being. We encourage healthcare organizations to implement well-being-oriented HRM by investing in nursing staff, providing engaging work, improving nurses’ voices, creating nursing-friendly work environments, and offering multiple job-related supports.