Dr. W. Dean Care

Dr. W. Dean Care, Professor and Dean of Health Studies, is collaborating with researchers from the University of Saskatchewan (Dr. Sonia Udod) and the University of Alberta (Dr. Greta Cummings) on a research project entitled: Nurse manager role stressors and coping strategies: Perspectives for solving complex organizational conditions.

This project is funded by the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation to the value of $119,000 over a three-year period (2014-2017). The purpose of this study is to examine role stressors and coping Stressors and Strategies strategies of nurse managers in acute care organizations in three health regions in Western Canada.

“A stressful workplace can impair decision-making and affect the mental and physical health of nurse managers, leading to poor performance, which ultimately leads to decreased job satisfaction and turnover,” says Dr. Care.

“The complexities of healthcare and work-life balance demand innovative approaches to achieve and sustain healthy work environments for nurse managers. Preliminary study outcomes suggest that chronic exposure to role stress and work complexity affect nurse managers’ health and potentially threaten individual, patient, and organizational outcomes.”