Early career nurses’ well-being at work in care settings for older people – a cross-sectional survey

Background: Nurses’ well-being at work is important for high-quality care and sustainable nursing careers. In care settings for older people, nurses face psychological, ethical, physical, and environmental demands in their early careers. However, little is known regarding how resilience, exposure to unethical conduct, physical work capacity, and the work environment are associated with early career nurses’ well-being at work in this setting.Aim: To analyse early career nurses’ well-being at work and associated factors in care settings for older people.Design: A cross-sectional, descriptive survey.Methods: Participants were qualified nurses (n = 262) at the national level in Finland. Inclusion criteria were graduation as a licensed practical nurse or registered nurse within the previous three years or during the data collection period and work experience in care settings for older people. Exclusion criterion was work experience that was limited to clinical placements. Data were collected electronically using the Nurses’ Well-Being at Work Scale©, the Brief Resilience Scale©, and demographic and career questions. Associations between well-being at work and background variables were studied using linear regression models.Results: Early career nurses’ self-assessed well-being at work was found to be moderate (3.39; SD 0.79; 5-point Likert scale). Univariate analyses revealed that better well-being at work was associated with having career plans in care services for older people, higher resilience, not observing unethical conduct, higher physical work capacity, and a better-fitting work environment; in multivariable analysis, never observing unethical conduct and higher physical work capacity remained significant.Conclusions: Early career nurses’ well-being at work in care settings for older people was associated with psychological, ethical, physical, and environmental aspects, thus emphasising the need for educational, organisational, and political actions, and research to support sustainable nursing careers and high-quality care for aging populations.