Main description:

Nursing in the European Union demonstrates how the European Union (EU) has refashioned the nursing world throughout the Member States via its power in many other policy domains. Volume 1 focused on the EU's impact on nursing education, regulation, and research endeavours. This volume focuses on real-life situations and problems EU nurses face-wages, stress, work environments, and dispute resolution-and places them in a comparative perspective.

In this unique work, Sondra Z. Koff develops a profile of nurses' workplaces, highlighting similarities and diversities, challenges, and nurses' opinions. Though it has limited formal authority in the health and health care sectors, the EU has had a significant impact on the working life of these practitioners in areas such as employment options, industrial relations and their outcomes, organizational and environmental features of nurses' workplaces, collective action, and more.

New policies and legalities are regulating the production, distribution, practices, and organization of nursing according to supranational standards. Koff helps to fill a gap in the literature, given the dearth of comparative, cross-national, book-length studies of the nursing profession. By adopting a framework focused on an institution, policies, and politics, Koff addresses these topics from the perspective of multiple actors, both national and international.

Contents:

Contents

List of Abbreviations

List of European Union Institutions and Processes

List of European Union Member States and Year of Entry

1 Employment
Introduction
Initial Employment-The First Position
The Hospital
Staffing Ratios
Nursing Care Delivery Models
Audit and Feedback
Shift Handover
Intentional Rounding
Hospital Shortages
Primary Care
Other Community Nursing Sites
Home Care
Palliative Care
Extended Care
Advanced Practice Nursing
Walk-In Centres and Telehealth Nursing
Independent Practice: The Self-Employed
Agency and Bank Nursing
Other Employment Choices
Skill Mix
The Public and Private Sectors
Professional Practice: Work Styles
Professional Practice and the New Social Scene
Turnover
Nurse Employment and the Financial Crisis
The European Union and Health-Care Human
Resources Management

2 Industrial Relations and Payment Mechanisms
Introduction
Trade Unions
Employer Organizations
Collective Bargaining
Basic Wages
Supplements to Basic Wages
Wage Evaluation
Social Security and Pensions
Conclusion

3 The World of Work: Basic Organizational Features
Working Time
Overtime
Part-time
Work Patterns
Annual Paid and Additional Leaves
Public Holidays
Maternity and Parental Leaves
Childcare
Absenteeism
Conclusion

4 The World of Work: Its Environment
Introduction
Physical Conditions
Psychosocial Conditions
Stress
Effort-Reward Balance
Work-Family Balance
Job Insecurity
Professional Relationships
Burnout
Work Ability
Violence: The Physical and Psychological Facets
Job Satisfaction and the Meaning of Work
Job and Organizational Commitment
Intent to Leave the Place of Employment and/or
the Profession
Conclusion

5 Industrial Action
Introduction
Issues Spurring Collective Action
Collective Action Tactics
Alternate Dispute Resolution
Dispute Resolution and the Courts
Summary and Conclusion

6 Member States, the European Union, and the Workplace

References

Index