تجزیه و تحلیل اقتصادی از تصمیم گیری در جستجوی کار برای پرستاران در کانادا

The goal of this study is to provide a detailed analysis of the job search decisions of nurses in Canada. The results of this study show that the most important variables influencing the probability of searching for a new job are annual earnings and satisfaction with pay. Socio-economic variables and individual attitudes have an effect for some groups, but these variables are less important. There are differences between women who are and are not currently employed as nurses and this could potentially be a beneficial group to study in terms of policies to recruit and retain nurses in the profession.

Due to the fact that there is a shortage of nurses in Canada and in many other countries, recruitment and retention of nursing staff is an area that is important to examine in order to staff nursing positions. The focus of this research will be on the retention of nurses and on examining the various aspects that impact an individual's intention to search for a new job. If more nurses are recruited into the nursing profession this will help to alleviate the shortage that is being seen, but if these nurses leave the profession the benefits of this increased recruitment is mitigated. Understanding the determinants of job search decisions is an important area to study in order to increase, or at least maintain, the stock of nurses in the profession. This study will involve a detailed analysis of the job search decisions of those who trained as nurses and it will add to the existing literature in this area as there are very few studies that attempt to estimate the probability of job search for nurses, particularly in Canada. In terms of the general population, Hamermesh (1977) and Freeman (1978) find that job satisfaction is a significant predictor of quit. He concludes that job satisfaction is definitely a useful and unique variable that contains important economic information. Similar findings were reported in Akerlof et al. (1988) and McEvoy (1985) using US samples, and by Clark et al. (1998) using German panel data. The goal of this study is to provide a detailed economic analysis and a modeling of job search decisions of nurses in Canada in order to understand the incidence of nursing turnover and to identify its predictors. Numerous factors, including salaries, satisfaction and employee attitudes, are believed to be important in understanding the job search decisions and turnover rates of nurses. In addition to various socio-economic factors that influence someone's decision to remain within a particular job or to search for a new job, this research will also examine the impact of satisfaction on nurse's job search intentions. Shields and Ward (2001) and Shields and Price (2002) find strong evidence that job satisfaction is the single most important determinant of intentions to quit among British nurses. This study will also test whether increasing wages paid to Canadian nurses has a significant impact on improving the retention of nurses. Frijters et al. (2003) suggest that wages have some effect on retaining British nurses but promotion and job satisfaction have a major impact. Studies in the United States by Schumacher (1997), Ahlburg and Mahoney (1996) and Parker and Rickman (1995) also show that wages have a beneficial effect on retention of nurses, but this effect is not large. Spetz and Given (2003) however suggest that increases in wages of between 3.2% and 3.8% per year between 2002 and 2016 will alleviate the nursing shortage seen in the United States. Using a binary probit model will enable me to predict which variables have and do not have an impact on the retention of nurses in Canada. If wages are not a significant factor in retention, this study will identify other variables, such as satisfaction and working conditions, which do have a significant effect on retention. This paper will be structured as follows: Section 2 will describe the data that will be used, and it will introduce the model and the empirical specification that will be used; Section 3 will examine some preliminary results, the summary statistics and present the regression results; and Section 4 will conclude with a discussion and implications.

The results of this study demonstrate that the most important variables that influence the probability of a nurse searching for a new job are annual earnings and satisfaction. Socio-economic variables and individual attitudes have an effect for some groups of individuals, but these variables are not as important. There are however significant differences between women who are and are not currently employed as nurses. Earnings and satisfaction with pay have a lesser effect on those who are already in the nursing profession, but this is an area that could be used to attract women who are not currently working as nurses. These variables have a much stronger effect on the women who are working in non-nursing jobs. Improved wages could potentially induce a substantial number of trained nurses who are planning to look for other employment to move into nursing jobs. The women who have studied nursing but are not currently employed as nurses are the most important group to focus on. Women who studied nursing and are working as nurses are less likely to be the individuals who are looking for a new job. The important question to address is why are women who study nursing working in other professions and not as nurses and secondly what can be done to ensure these women are working in the profession that there were specifically trained for? Analyzing the reasons why women who studied nursing are not working as nurses and addressing these issues can go a long way in filling in the gaps in labour market for registered nurses in Canada. Further studies need to focus on why women who study nursing are working in other professions and how to bring them into the profession. Additionally, since there is such a strong relationship between job satisfaction and the intent to search, further analysis is required to examine factors that affect job satisfaction for nurses. Potential policy implications can be focused on ensuring that nurses are happy with their jobs and if they are they are more likely to remain in these jobs. Addressing job satisfaction is an issue that can keep more nurses working in their profession and this can help in influencing whether more people decide to enter the labour market for nursing.