Hospital restructuring and nursing staff well-being: The role of coping

A research model incorporating hospital restructuring stressors, job satisfaction, psychosomatic symptoms and active and escapist coping was tested in a large sample of nursing staff Almost 1,400 staff nurses participated by completing anonymous questionnaires. Concepts in the model were assessed using multiple-item scales having satisfactory psychometric properties. A LISREL analysis was undertaken in which relationships among all variables in the model were considered simultaneously. Use of active coping was negatively related to the use of escapist coping; use of escapist coping was positively related to future threats to security and psychosomatic symptoms and negatively related to self-reported job satisfaction; use of active coping was related to perceptions of less extensive hospital restructuring, greater job satisfaction, and fewer psychosomatic symptoms.