Levels of Flow at Work among Nurses: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

IF 3.7 3区医学 Q1 NURSING

International Nursing Review Pub Date : 2025-08-12 DOI:10.1111/inr.70098

Peishuang Wang, Rui Gao, Xinyan Zhuang, Yi Yang, Fang Zhou, Fang Wu, Jiao Wu, Shumin Tu, Nana Liu, Huihui Hu

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Aim

To systematically evaluate the available literature on the overall levels of flow at work among nurses.

Background

Nurses are the core members of the medical team, who are confronted with considerable pressure, job burnout, and a high level of intention to leave. As flow refers to the optimal experiences that are the most enjoyable in human life when engaged in an activity with full involvement, a higher level of flow at work can help reduce work pressure, alleviate burnout, promote personal growth, and further improve the quality of nursing.

Method

A search was conducted on the Cochrane, EMBASE, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, WOS, CINAHL, and Chinese databases, including the China Biomedical Literature (SinoMed), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang, and Weipu databases, from the inception of the databases until October 2024. Two researchers independently conducted the literature screens, quality assessments, and data extraction on the basis of the inclusion and exclusion criteria and evaluated the risk of bias. A random-effects model was employed to achieve pooled estimates of work-related flow scales via Stata18.0 software.

Results

The pooled mean score of the work-related flow scale was 3.44 (95% CI, 3.28–3.60). Eleven studies reported scores for the subdimensions of absorption, work enjoyment, and intrinsic motivation, with scores of 3.38 (95% CI, 3.09–3.68), 3.12 (95% CI, 2.88–3.36), and 3.28 (95% CI, 3.00–3.56), respectively. Subgroup analysis suggested that nurses in China, nurses in general departments (internal medicine and surgery), and nurses ≤35 years of age might have experienced lower levels of flow at work. Additionally, studies with large sample sizes tended to report high levels of flow at work; studies published from 2019 to 2022 reported slightly higher levels of flow at work scores. Meta-regression further revealed that the country, mean age, and department of the participants might be the sources of heterogeneity.

Conclusion

This review is the first to synthesize published research and calculate a pooled score of flow at work among nurses. The results indicated that nurses reported a medium level of flow at work, with significant heterogeneity.

Implications for nursing policy

Policy makers and managers should dynamically monitor the level of nurses’ flow at work and incorporate it into the reference index system to measure and promote nurses’ personal career development.

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护士工作中的心流水平：一项系统回顾和元分析

目的系统评价现有的关于护士工作流程总体水平的文献。护士是医疗团队的核心成员，他们面临着巨大的压力，工作倦怠，并且有很高的离职倾向。“心流”指的是人们全身心投入某项活动时所获得的最愉悦的最佳体验，因此在工作中，较高水平的“心流”有助于减轻工作压力、缓解倦怠、促进个人成长，并进一步提高护理质量。方法检索Cochrane、EMBASE、PsycINFO、PubMed、Scopus、WOS、CINAHL和中文数据库，包括中国生物医学文献（SinoMed）、中国知网（CNKI）、万方、卫普等数据库，检索时间为数据库建成至2024年10月。两名研究者根据纳入和排除标准独立进行文献筛选、质量评估和数据提取，并评估偏倚风险。采用随机效应模型，通过Stata18.0软件对工作流量表进行汇总估计。结果工作流量表合并平均得分为3.44分（95% CI为3.28 ~ 3.60）。11项研究报告了吸收、工作享受和内在动机子维度的得分，得分分别为3.38 （95% CI, 3.09-3.68）、3.12 （95% CI, 2.88-3.36）和3.28 （95% CI, 3.00-3.56）。亚组分析表明，中国护士、普通科（内科和外科）护士和年龄≤35岁的护士在工作中可能经历较低的心流水平。此外，大样本量的研究倾向于报告高水平的工作心流；2019年至2022年发表的研究报告显示，工作中的心流得分略高。元回归进一步揭示了国家、平均年龄和部门可能是异质性的来源。结论本综述首次综合了已发表的研究成果，并计算了护士工作流程的综合评分。结果表明，护士在工作中报告了中等水平的流动，具有显著的异质性。政策制定者和管理者应动态监测护士的工作流程水平，并将其纳入衡量和促进护士个人职业发展的参考指标体系。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Nursing Review 医学-护理

CiteScore

7.90

自引率

7.30%

发文量

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

期刊介绍： International Nursing Review is a key resource for nurses world-wide. Articles are encouraged that reflect the ICN"s five key values: flexibility, inclusiveness, partnership, achievement and visionary leadership. Authors are encouraged to identify the relevance of local issues for the global community and to describe their work and to document their experience.