- Project number: F 2464
- Institution: Federtal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA), novaworx, innsicht - entdecken und entwickeln GbR
- Status: Completed Project
Description:
Providing medical and nursing care to around 17.2 million patients in German hospitals every year places high physical and psychological demands on staff – and is made even more difficult by the already significant shortage of personnel. Interventions to promote health in the workplace in this sector, which employs more than 1.3 million people nationwide, are therefore essential – not least to ensure high-quality acute inpatient care in the future. The guide ‘Decent ward organisation: A guide for nursing teams in hospitals’, developed as part of two BAuA projects and updated in 2024, supports nursing teams in identifying the need for action in terms of work design, developing suitable measures and implementing them.
The project used a quasi-experimental design to investigate the effects of different conditions for using the guide. The focus was on whether external support in working with the guide provided additional benefits compared to working with the guide independently. The external support included moderating workshops on redesigning organisational aspects and providing advice on possible changes. Two wards of a maximum care hospital worked with the guidelines under these two conditions. Two other wards received only general instructions on how to improve work organization. In addition, the project investigated which factors have a positive or negative impact on working with the guidelines and developing work organisation measures.
The evaluation was process- and results-oriented and based on intervention diaries, participant surveys, interviews and focus group discussions, as well as two written surveys. The results confirm the acceptance and perceived benefits of the practical guide. They also point to positive effects of using the guide on work processes and well-being. These effects are slightly more pronounced in those wards that received additional support in working with the guide. Overall, the results highlight the significant need for work design measures in an important area of healthcare – both during ‘normal operations’ and, to a particular extent, during ‘times of crisis’ such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In the latter case in particular, decent ward organization can make an important contribution to crisis management.
