title: Finding Meaning in the Work of Nursing: An International Study.
abstract: Sixty nurses from five countries (Canada, India, Ireland, Japan, and Korea) took part in 11 focus groups that discussed the question: Do you consider your work meaningful? Fostering meaning and mentorship as part of the institutional culture was a central theme that emerged from the discussions. In this article, we begin with a background discussion of meaning and meaningful work as presented in the literature related to existentialism and hardiness. Next, we describe the method and analysis processes we used in our qualitative study asking how nurses find meaning in their very challenging work and report our findings of four themes that emerged from the comments shared by nurses, specifically relationships, compassionate caring, identity, and a mentoring culture. After offering a discussion of our findings and noting the limitations of this qualitative study, we conclude that nursing leaders and a culture of mentorship play an important role in fostering meaningful work and developing hardy employees.
authors.forename: David Cruise
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Malloy
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fahey-McCarthy
authors.forename: Masaaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Murakami
authors.forename: Yongho
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Eunhee
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Eri
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hirose
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hadjistavropoulos
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004645:Empathy; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D007857:Leadership; D000071252:Mentoring; D009729:Nursing; D036301:Qualitative Research