Association between nursing practice environment and sense of coherence among staff nurses: A cross-sectional study in Japan

Aim This study aimed to investigate the association between work environment and sense of coherence among staff nurses. Background In Antonovsky's salutogenetic theory, factors that causes stress are not always harmful when people's sense of coherence is high. Although the effects of sense of coherence have repeatedly been confirmed, few studies have examined factors that increase sense of coherence. Methods We used cross-sectional data (N = 6172) surveyed in 2017 from a 2-year longitudinal study in 2016 and 2017. Multiple group structural equation modelling was conducted for years of nurse experience of different groups. Results Work environment subscale scores for nurses with less than 5 years of experience ranged from 2.3 to 2.9 and for those with more than 5 years, from 2.1 to 2.7. The averages of sense of coherence for the groups were 36.9 and 39.7, respectively. For both groups, there was a statistically significant association between work environment and sense of coherence. Conclusions Improvement of nurses' work environment may increase sense of coherence, leading to improvements in health. Implications for Nursing Management The study suggests that nurse managers should improve the work environment to increase sense of coherence of staff nurses, leading to improved health for any length of a nurse's experience.