Meaningful Work Among Nurses

Nursing is Quintessential Meaningful Work

Source: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

It is National Nurses Week from May 6th to May 12th. There probably hasn't been a better year to celebrate the way nurses hold us together than 2020, in a world with more than 4,000,000 reported cases of COVID-19.

In my neighborhood, at 8:00 p.m., give or take a few minutes, someone gets the evening started with a “whoop!” There is a bit of awkward silence and then a few adult-sounding voices shout “Woooooo!” The ruckus really kicks off when the kids get going with, “Ow-ow-owooo! Yow-yow-yow!” If I’m outside, I always participate in that kind of self-conscious way that just makes things more uncomfortable. Then I sit back and listen to the howls from all corners of my neck of the woods.

We are howling in support of health care workers, and so grateful for the lungs that can draw such deep breaths to shout out our thanks!

Around the world, the grueling and dangerous health care work of shepherding the sick through this pandemic is being celebrated. Nursing is so difficult; how can people keep going in order to give this vital service to the rest of us?

Traditionally, part of the answer has been meaningful work. Meaningful work is the fusion of work that has a legitimate point — work that harmonizes and extends the meaning and purpose in our lives — and work that expresses our motivation to benefit the greater good (Steger, 2017; Steger, Dil, & Duffy, 2012). What does meaningful work look like in nursing?

The three articles I will talk about today used different methods, focused on different parts of the meaningful workspace, and were conducted in China, Italy, and the US. This single sentence should pretty clearly demonstrate that meaningful work research in the nursing profession is thriving!

First, nurses do see their work as meaningful, particularly in the sense that they do legitimate tasks with identifiable and important outcomes, and that their work supports meaning in the rest of their lives (Tong, 2018).

Second, nurses want to keep doing their meaningful work, and do it well. It is negatively related to the intentions of nurses to quit, and it even helps protect nurses from wanting to quit their jobs as the demands placed upon them increase (Cortese, Gatti, & Ghislieri, 2014). Further, meaningful work is linked to better performance among nurses (Tong, 2018).

Finally, nurses who shared their stories of working in acute care drew meaning from appreciation, connection, and contribution (Pavlish & Hunt, 2012). They told moving narratives of seeing and hearing from patients about how their work really made a difference to the patients’ health, relationships, and hope. If you are or know a nurse, I strongly encourage you to check this article out.

We have a lot to learn from nurses, particularly about how finding the meaning in what we do can help us stick with it, and how it is important to take the time to make a positive contribution to the world around us and be open to receiving appreciation for those efforts.

We can all howl our appreciation for nurses and other health care workers. Next time you see a nurse, maybe share a story from your own life about how a nurse supported your health, relationships, and hope.

Thank you, nurses!