The importance of social and cultural factors to nursing status.

The objective of the authors was to examine nursing staff workload. The examination is based on the workload model of Robert Karasek and on the status integration theory of P. Gibbs and Walter T. Martin. As a means of examination, an open questionnaire consisting of 55 items and 76 variables was given to nurses working in different fields of health care, studying in higher education instead, or to persons with a degree in nursing (n = 465). The main concern of the authors was to attempt to identify the inconsistencies in nursing status which might come from limited decision-making freedom and high workplace requirements. In the process of statistical analysis of the data, considerable deviation was observed regarding some scales of the questionnaire. The authors emphasize that the reasons for the inconsistencies in nursing status might originate either from traditional cultural elements or from increased workload based on unclear competencies which are forced on the nurses.