Key Factors for Nurse Leaders: What Issues Should be Taken into Account WHEN Developing Nurses' Rewarding

Reward strategy is a part of the human resources strategy and it is implemented as a management tool defined by organization with the help of a reward system (Armstrong 2006). Previous studies have shown the importance of developing nurses’ rewarding (von Bonsdorff 2011, Eneh et al. 2012, Kvist et al. 2013, Seitovirta et al. 2014). In fact, it has been shown that rewarding has significant and beneficial effects on nurses’ job satisfaction and commitment (Pasarón 2013, Morrison & Korol 2014). Nurse Leaders have an important role when design a successful reward system for nurses (Kurzman et al. 2011). Equitable and fair reward policy is realized when the views of the employee are taken into consideration (Miller et al. 2013).  

Purpose: The purpose of this presentation is to describe the issues, what Nurse Leaders should take into account when developing reward system for Registered Nurses. The research question is: How would Nurse Leaders develop the reward systems according to the RNs’ perceptions? The study is a part of research project of RNs’ rewarding in Finland.

Methods: The participants were 30 RNs and they worked in one public special-, one primary- and in two different private health care organisations in Finland. The inclusion criteria were the following: registered nurse having been working at least three months in current organization. The data were collected in the years 2011 and 2014 by interviewing voluntary RNs of their perceptions of rewarding. The participants were two male and 28 female nurses between the ages of 27 to 63 and had from three months to 30 years of experience as RN. The data were analyzed with qualitative content analysis. Issues of trustworthiness were carefully followed: reliability, confirmability, transferability and independence of the study are demonstrated in the accurate and thorough descriptions of the different phases.

Results: Findings showed that reward system should be designed together with nursing staff.  Co-operation between management and employees was presented by RNs. Nurse Leaders should ensure that there is a fair and equitable justification and yearly evaluation for rewarding. Viable reward criteria and alternative types of rewards were the suggestions to be taken into account in reward system. The criteria for rewarding should be clear and measurable. Additionally performance-based pay criteria should be revised to be lower. RNs suggested both individual and team rewards, freedom to choose the type of reward for instance money or free time or is the getting a reward public or not public. In addition, both financial and non-financial rewards are needed in reward system according to RNs’ experiences.

Conclusion: In conclusion, rewards will also be relevant to the employee herself/himself, thus the information provided by the RNs is extremely valuable.