Research Article

The aim of this study is to identify possible triggers for the nursing workforce. Furthermore, it compares whether the triggers found in Jordan are similar or different from other countries. The countries of comparison in the study are the UK and USA as a representation of the Western culture nations. This is for a long-term strategic aim of improving the quality of nursing workforce life. In developing the required analysis, the study material has been collected from databases with recognised, peer-reviewed, and professional journals on nursing. The articles were sought from a diverse database source. Some of the core databases used obtained dataset was Scopus, CINAHL and MEDLINE. The review applied an inclusion criterion where the studies with a whole article available online and which were published in English. Further, the inclusion criterion was based on the study focus and locations. This includes the studies developed specifically for the Jordanian market and those in the UK and USA. Studies focusing on all types of nurses regardless of their served units were included. The exclusion criteria were for studies that were oriented in the pre- 2015 period and which did not directly address the issue of nursing fatigue in Jordan and the Western countries. The definition of nurses was limited to registered nurses only.

Overall, the key words used were based and selected hedged on the study objectives. This means that for this study, the articles that fitted the initial search for inclusion criteria for consideration in the analysis. In search for the required data and information, the analysis used the keywords “fatigue”, “risk management”, and “fatigue mitigation”, which were core focus areas. Other applied terms were “tiredness”, “exhaustion” and “lethargy”. These were synonyms that would help in capturing other studies discussing nursing fatigue. Besides the single keywords, the search also includes a combination of phrases such as “culture and gender effect on the nursing fatigue”, ‘refugees’ effect on nursing’, among others. The target population base was nurses from across the hospital units.

The article analysis demonstrates that the main prevalent forms of nursing fatigue in Jordan were physical and mental nursing fatigues. This is fatigue based on long working hours, lack of external motivation, lack of improved living standards leading to demotivation, and a rising refugee’s index in Jordan. Furthermore, it demonstrated that the contextual variables of culture influence on the nursing fatigue index, leads to a higher fatigue index on female nurses than their male counterparts. This is due to the theory of the social role that allocates the additional tasks when at work and when off duty at home. In mitigating the challenges, according to the study, it’s shown that providing manageable schedules with proper rest breaks reduces fatigue levels.