Care With Love: Examining The Flow Experience In Healthcare Professionals In Terms Of Demographic Variables- A Research On Nurses And Midwives

Abstract

The study was conducted to determine the statistical differences of some demographic characteristics of nurses and midwives working in public and private institutions, which are thought to be effective in flow experiences. The population of the study consists of nurses and midwives working in Turkey. Through convenience sampling, 393 survey data were obtained through an online survey and the study was conducted on these data. The 13-item Flow Experience Scale was used in the study. As a result of the analysis, frequency distributions show that nurses and midwives experience flow. Married employees were found to have higher flow levels than single employees, and those with children had higher flow levels than those without children. It was observed that the level of flow increased with increasing age and working years. In addition, the flow levels of employees whose income is equal to their expenses are higher than those whose income is less than their expenses. In the study, the importance of the frequency of flow experiences of nurses and midwives was emphasized and suggestions for managers were included. Since the effects of flow experience, the effects of which have been examined by many disciplines and professional groups, have not been sufficiently investigated on healthcare personnel, the research makes important contributions to the literature in terms of expanding the concept of flow experience.

Keywords

• Flow Experience
• Nurses
• Midwives

References

1. Akın, K. (2020). The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital and Organizational Justice Perception on Flow Experience: The Mediating Role of Job Retention: A Research in Turkish Defense Industry. Ankara: Başkent University Institute of Social Sciences Published Doctoral Thesis.
2. Akman, E. (2018). The effect of flow experience on subjective well-being in health professionals: a public and private hospital example (Master's thesis, Institute of Health Sciences).
3. Akman & Çatar, (2022). The flow experience of the nurses and its Relation to subjective well-being: A study among nurses in a public and private hospital. Socıal Scıences Studıes Journal (SSSJournal), 5(47), 5764-5771.
4. Ahn, S. Y., & Kwon, M. J. (2020). Influencing Factors on Happiness of Nurses in General Hospitals. Medico-legal Update, 20(1).
5. Bakker, A. B. (2008). "The Work Related Flow Inventory: Construction and Initial Validation of the Wolf", Journal of Vocational Behavior, 72(3), 400-414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2007.11.007
6. Baştürk, S., & Taştepe, M. (2013). Scientific Research Methods. Vize Publishing.
7. Berlyne, D. E. (1960). Conflict, arousal, and curiosity. McGraw-Hill
8. Boehm, J. K., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2008). Does happiness promote career success? Journal of Career Assessment, 16(1), 101-116.

9. Bu, K., & Lee, L. (2023). Flow and Happiness: The Major Drive of BTS Fan ARMY's Voluntary Pro-social Behaviors. Korea Business Review, 77-92.
10. Burke, R. J., & Matthiesen, S. B. (2005). Correlates of flow at work among Norwegian journalists. Journal of Transnational Management, 10(2), 49-58.
11. Chalofsky, N. (2003). An emerging construct for meaningful work Human Resource Development International. Human Resource Development International, 6(1), 69-83.
12. Clarke, S. G., & Haworth, J. T. (1994). 'Flow'experience in the daily lives of sixth-form college students. British Journal of Psychology, 85(4), 511-523.
13. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). Flowing: A general model of intrinsically rewarding experiences. Journal of Humanistic Psychology.
14. Csikszentmihalyi , M. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience Journal of Leisure Research. Journal of Leisure Research, 24(1), 93-94.
15. Csikszentmihalyi, M., 2000. Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. Jossey-bass, San Francisco.
16. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). Flow and the Foundations of Positive Psychology. New York: Springer.
17. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2020). Leadership Flow and Meaning Creation. (N. Tümay, Translation.) Istanbul: Okyanuz Publications.
18. Durak, İ., & Serinkan, C. (2007). Job satisfaction in nurses: A research in intensive care units of Denizli State Hospital. Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University Journal of Social and Economic Research, 2007(2), 119-135.
19. Feitor, S., Martins, T., & Borges, E. (2022). Shorted happiness at work scale: Psychometric proprieties of the Portuguese version in a sample of nurses. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(1), 658.
20. Fraenkel, J.R. and Wallen, N.E. (2006). How to design and evaluate education research. New York: McGaw-Hill International Edition.
21. Fullagar, C. J., & Kelloway, E. K. (2009). 'Flow' at work: An experience sampling approach. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 82(3), 595-615.
22. García-Sierra, R., Fernández-Castro, J., & Martínez-Zaragoza, F. (2016). Work engagement in nursing: an integrative review of the literature. Journal of Nursing Management, 24(2), E101-E111.
23. Gavin, J. H., & Mason, R. O. (2004). The Virtuous Organization:: The Value of Happiness in the Workplace. Organizational dynamics, 33(4), 379-392.
24. Hamid, N., & Ghaazaei, M. (2013). Comparison of the mental health, happiness, and immune system performance in depressive and normal women. International Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Research, 2(3), 178-184.
25. Ju, E. J., Kwon, Y. C., & Nam, M. H. (2015). Influence of clinical nurses' work environment and emotional labor on happiness index. Journal of Korean academy of nursing administration, 21(2), 212-222.
26. Karasar, N. (2012). Scientific research method (24th edition). Ankara: Nobel Publishing.
27. Kotler, S. (2014). The Rise Of Superman. U.S.: Amazon Publishing
28. Kumar, T. A., Khakha, D. C., Joshi, P., Das, S., & Manu, K. J. (2022). Happiness and its determinants among nursing students. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 31(2), 293.
29. Lina, L. F., & Ahluwalia, L. (2021). Customers' impulse buying in social commerce: The role of flow experience in personalized advertising. Jurnal Manajemen Maranatha, 21(1), 1-8.
30. Malinauskiene V, Leisyte P, Malinauskas R, Kirtiklyte K. (2011). Associations between self-rated health and psychosocial conditions, lifestyle factors and health resources among hospital nurses in Lithuania. J Adv Nurs.. 67(11):2383-2393. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2648.2011.05685.x.
31. Martínez-Zaragoza, F., Benavides-Gil, G., Martín-del-Río, B., Fernández-Castro, J., Ato-García, M., & Solanes-Puchol, A. (2017). Flow in nurses: A study of its relationship with health and burnout in a hospital work context. Holistic Nursing Practice, 31(5), 303-314.
32. McQueen, S., Jiang, S., McParland, A., Hammond Mobilio, M., & Moulton, C. A. (2021). Cognitive flow in health care settings: A systematic review. Medical Education, 55(7), 782-794.
33. Meng, Y., Luo, X., Sun, P., Luo, Y., Wang, Z., Wang, L., ... & Lin, L. (2023). Occupational Happiness of Civilian Nurses in China: a cross-sectional study. BMC nursing, 22(1), 233.
34. Moore, B. (2013). Flow theory and the paradox of happiness. In J. D. Sinnott (Ed.), Positive psychology: Advances in understanding adult motivation (pp. 35-42). Springer Science + Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7282-7_3
35. Nam, M. H., & Kwon, Y. C. (2013). Factors influencing happiness index of hospital nurses. Journal of Korean academy of nursing administration, 19(3), 329-339.
36. Ozkara San, E. (2015). Concept analysis of nurses' happiness. In Nursing forum (Vol. 50, No. 1, pp. 55-62). Peifer, C., & Tan, J. (2021). The psychophysiology of flow experience. In Advances in flow research (pp. 191-230). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
37. Rad, Z. Z., ShafiAbadi, A., & ZareBahramAbadi, M. (2015). The use of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for improving the flow experience of nurses in psychiatric hospitals. European Psychiatry, 30(S1), 1-1.
38. Robbins, S.P. & Judge, T.A. (2007). Organizational Behavior. New Jersey:: Prentice-Hall. Sharifi, K., Sooky, Z., Tagharrobi, Z., & Akbari, H. (2010). Happiness and its related factors among the students of Kashan University of Medical Sciences in 2006-7. KAUMS Journal (FEYZ), 14(1), 62-69.
39. Shreffler, J., & Huecker, M. (2022). Physician flow at work: Examining work absorption, clinical flow, work fulfillment, and flow thieves. Workplace Health & Safety, 70(11), 484-491.
40. Tengilimoğlu, D., & Yiğit, A. (2005). A field study to determine the effect of leadership behaviors on staff job satisfaction in hospitals. Hacettepe Journal of Health Administration, 8(3), 374-400.
41. Vela, A., & Kamsickas, L. (2022). Happiness and Social Connectivity. Lifestyle Nursing, 99-111.
42. Yan, Q., & Donaldson, S. I. (2023). What are the differences between flow and work engagement? A systematic review of positive intervention research. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 18(3), 449-459.
43. Yaşin, T. (2016). The Effects of Personality Traits and Psychological Capital on Psychological Well-Being, Flow Experience, Job Satisfaction and Employee Performance. Ankara: Başkent University Institute of Social Sciences, Published Doctoral Thesis.
44. Yazıcıoğlu , Y., & Erdoğan, S. (2004). SPSS Applied Scientific Research Methods (4th b.). Detay Publishing.
45. Xu, J., Huang, Q., Yuan, Q., 2018. Flow theory and its application and prospect in information system research. J. Mod. Inf. 38(10), 157-166.