Managing Vitality, Sustainable Performance and Fatigue in Nursing Home Staff: A Multi-Location Cross-Sectional Survey Study: Empirical Research Quantitative.

Aim: This study examines the moderating role of specific job resources in the association between job demands, vigour, sustainable performance and fatigue in nursing home staff.

Design: A multi-location cross-sectional survey study in line with the STROBE guidelines.

Methods: Online self-completion questionnaires were distributed in the Summer of 2022. A total of 667 healthcare employees from 24 nursing home locations in the Netherlands participated in this study. Data were analysed using hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

Results: Job resources were able to moderate the relation between job demands on the one hand, and vigour, sustainable performance and fatigue on the other. Regression analyses revealed that high cognitive job resources moderated (i.e., strengthened) the positive association between cognitive job demands and successively cognitive liveliness, physical strength and sustainable performance. Furthermore, high emotional job resources moderated (i.e., buffered) the positive relation between emotional job demands and emotional and cognitive fatigue, respectively.

Conclusions: It can be concluded that job resources are crucial for nursing home staff to deal with their high job demands. Maintaining a healthy balance between job demands and sufficient, matching, job resources to promote vigour and sustainable performance, as well as to prevent fatigue of staff, seems to be important.

Implications for the profession: There is an urgent need to train nursing home staff to cope better with increasing job demands. Because job demands cannot be reduced in many situations, this study revealed that the idea of boosting job resources instead is appealing to both staff and managers.

Patient or public contribution: Dutch healthcare staff from 24 nursing home locations were involved in this study by responding to the online survey.