Factors Contributing to Job Engagement in Ugandan Nurses and Midwives

Abstract

Despite the difficult working conditions many nurses in Sub-Saharan Africa experience resulting in their migration or leaving the profession, there are nurses who thrive and stay engaged. Understanding what factors play a role in enhancing nurses' job engagement might help health care and training institutions develop interventions to enable nurses learn methods to help retain their job engagement. Research in Norway has produced a theory about how job engagement can be protected, called the Self-tuning Model of Self-Care, which was used to explore the phenomenon of job engagement in Ugandan nurses. In-depth interviews were conducted in 2010, with a purposive sample of 15 nurses and midwives. Qualitative content analysis of the data was conducted. Findings from Uganda show that the Self-Tuning Model can be used both as a framework for analysis and as a model of how nurses can promote their experience of job engagement. Nurses should be encouraged to practice habitual introspection and reflection about the satisfactions they derive from work, to enable them retain a high level of job engagement despite the adversities of nursing practice.