Of the 600 nurses who were emailed the survey, a total of 106 nurses completed the survey. Of these respondents, seven indicated never being redeployed and further one did not rate overall redeployment experience, leaving 98 respondents included in the analysis. Based on the estimation that 25% of the 600 nurses experienced redeployment, the response rate was approximately 65%. The majority of respondents were Registered Nurses (85%), were less than 40 years of age (62%), primarily employed with surgical services (66%) and reported five or more years of experience in their current position (52%). (Table 1).
Table 1
Demographic and employment / deployment characteristics of study participants
Variable | Number | Percentage |
Demographic | | |
Age | | |
20–29 | 32 | 30 |
30–39 | 34 | 32 |
40–49 | 23 | 22 |
50–59 | 15 | 14.1 |
> 60 | 2 | 1.9 |
Employment | | |
Classification | | |
Registered Nurse | 90 | 85 |
Endorse Enrolled Nurse | 15 | 14.1 |
Enrolled Nurse | 0 | 0 |
Assistant in Nursing | 1 | 0.9 |
Years of current employment | | |
< 12 months | 18 | 17 |
1–3 years | 16 | 15 |
3–5 years | 17 | 16 |
> 5 < 10 years | 26 | 25 |
> 10 years | 29 | 27 |
Primary place of employment | | |
Medical | 36 | 34 |
Surgical | 70 | 66 |
Redeployment | | |
Time since last being redeployed | | |
This month | 26 | 26 |
1–6 months | 55 | 56 |
6–12 months | 10 | 10 |
> 12 months | 8 | 8.0 |
Satisfaction with being redeployed | | |
Very satisfied | 2 | 2.2 |
Satisfied | 5 | 5.3 |
Neutral | 45 | 48.4 |
Dissatisfied | 32 | 34.4 |
Very dissatisfied | 9 | 9.7 |
Redeployment experience | | |
Positive | 40 | 43 |
Negative | 53 | 57 |
Of these, most respondents (82%) were redeployed within the last 6 months. Only few respondents (7.7%) were satisfied with redeployment, close to half (48%) did not have opinion (neutral) and the remainders being dissatisfied (44%). Less than half (43%) of respondents reported a positive redeployment experience. A summary of redeployment satisfaction and experience is outlined in Table 1.
In the binary logistic regression analysis, the response of “neutral” was treated as “satisfied” due to many respondents also indicating that they were not “dissatisfied” with redeployment in their open-ended responses, and therefore were clustered into the “satisfied” group. There was no association between age, classification, place of employment or frequency of redeployment and staff satisfaction. A significant positive relationship was identified between staff satisfaction and overall experience, where respondents who had a positive redeployment experience were five times more likely to be satisfied with redeployment (OR: 5.17, 95% CI: 2.12–12.57, p < 0.0001) (Table 2).
Table 2
Association of participant characteristics and redeployment satisfaction (n = 98)
| OR | 95% CI | P Value |
Age groups | 0.93 | 0.64–1.35 | 0.70 |
Classification | 1.27 | 0.41–3.98 | 0.68 |
Years of current employment | 0.82 | 0.62–1.09 | 0.18 |
Primary Place of Employment | 1.13 | 0.49–2.63 | 0.78 |
Time since last being redeployed | 1.35 | 0.83–2.21 | 0.23 |
Redeployment experience | 5.17 | 2.12–12.57 | < 0.0001 |
Qualitative findings
The following qualitative findings described respondents’ perception of what constitute a positive redeployment experience and elements that contributed to their negative experiences. The number of respondents who provided comments regarding positive experience, negative experience and suggestions were 63, 70 and 62, respectively. Three common themes emerged from the qualitative feedback: “friendly and welcoming”, “patient allocation” and “preparation and support”.
Welcome and friendliness
Most respondents described that friendliness of staff and the feeling of being welcomed into the team created a positive redeployment experience. One respondent indicated that she was very anxious initially, but with the support of the staff, she felt her redeployment experience was positive. Simple steps such as a quick orientation to the ward and staff, checking in and having an access code for treatment rooms created a friendly and welcoming environment. The following quotes are examples of these elements.
Being deployed can be stressful…what makes a redeployment positive is ward staff reaction, if they support you, introduce themselves and [provide] a quick “tour” of the ward, code for the medication room/staff toilet and the team leader checking you are going ok…
“Sometimes it’s just a simple acknowledgment by those around you to make you feel part of the team”
The staff of the ward were very accommodating and helpful, given a quick orientation to the ward and passcodes
…staff checking in on me throughout the shift, making sure I go on my break, offering help… all great things
An aspect of this theme is the emotional impact on the respondents when they perceived themselves as unwelcomed, some described that they felt isolated or like a burden, while others reported that these negative experiences affected their motivation to come to work. It is not unreasonable to assume that these negative emotions impact on quality of care provided, an issue also raised by respondents:
…did not feel welcome on the ward. Was not orientated to the ward…walked into room where a patient was deceased and [I was] left to attend care without help…being deployed to another ward is very hard on mental health and anxiety builds, not wanting to come to work…
…as a junior staff I feel it can be very dangerous for patients as we are expected to care for some sickest patients with minimum help…
…it is very stressful…staff were not friendly…I was not familiar with the specialty, and this ultimately affect patient standards of care and management…
Patient allocation
This theme was an important factor that respondents contributed to either a positive or negative redeployment experience. Some respondents perceived patient allocation as how they were valued by the team and when the allocation was received as “fair” or “adequate” they felt there were respected. The perception of fair or adequate patient allocation appeared to be based on the respondent’s confidence and capability of managing patients they were allocated.
“I was given patients that were more suitable for my skills and knowledge”
I felt [I was] treated equally and not given [patient]loads that are out of scope, they were appropriate for my experience…
I was able to discuss patient allocation after stating that I was not familiar with the patient conditions and care requirement, and the allocation was changed
Many of the respondents reported that most of time they were given the “heaviest” patients. Respondents described the “heaviest” patient load as related to patient acuity, challenging behaviors or in some situations staff perception of a patient, and considered allocation to this load as being unfair treated by the regular ward staff:
…people who are redeployed are usually given the hardest/heaviest patient load…which is not always fair
“I found that because I was not the regular staff, was given the behavioral difficult or confused patients…
…I was sent to a ward where I was in high activity room. I felt I was constantly being criticized…verging on bullying…
These themes demonstrated the challenging situations faced by nurses when being deployed. Whilst there are challenges, many believed there are strategies that can be put in place by health managers to improve staff’s satisfaction and experience towards redeployment.
Preparation and support
Respondents were asked to provide suggestions to improve redeployment experiences, most respondents felt inadequately prepared and supported to care for patients with complex needs when redeployed to a specialty area that was outside their own specialty experience. Some indicated that if patient allocation was based on their knowledge and skills, it would improve their redeployment experience:
…[having] appropriate patient load based on skills and experience
It would be great if we could have secondments between units to build up a staffing pool with greater knowledge and skills
Strategies to prepare and support redeployed nurses reported included “structured orientation” and “buddy system”. These suggestions were reflective of the themes above, in which when staff felt welcomed and were confident to care for patients they were allocated to, it improves their redeployment experience.