Abstract

Background: The workplace environment plays a pivotal role in employees’ lives as they spend many hours there. Recently, greater attention has been placed on workplace conditions as a key social determinant of health. One way through which workplace conditions may affect health is workplace dignity. This study aimed to describe clinical nurses’ workplace dignity.

Methods: The study design was descriptive and cross-sectional. Clinical nurses within a tertiary institution were randomly sampled. Data collection included the Workplace Dignity scale which is an 18 item-seven-point Likert scale consisting of dignity and indignity questions (α.98, and 0.95, respectively). Data collection commenced with a pilot followed by a final data collection phase. Ethical considerations were included via informed consent, anonymity, and confidentiality. Data analysis included means, standard deviations, and Pearson correlations.

Results: The pilot test yielded a reliability coefficient – α 0.93. Two hundred and thirty-six clinical nurses participated in the study resulting in a response rate of 87.4%. The average mean age of participants was 37.966 ± 0.635 (min 25- max 60) years. Most participants were female (92.8%) with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree (77.5%). The overall mean experience as a registered nurse was 16.038 ± 0.589 years. Nationality responses were divided into Saudi (41.5%) and non-Saudi (58.5%). The construct of general dignity had the highest mean score of 5.52 (SD 1.46), with question 14: “I have dignity at work” having the highest overall mean score of 5.63 (SD 1.4). There was a positive correlation and statistical significance with a ‘p < 0.000 i.e. as a nurses’ experience as a registered nurse increased, workplace dignity scores increased.

Conclusion: The findings of this study indicated that inherent value and general dignity were the highest-scored constructs while indignity and respectful interaction scored the lowest. This study allows for reflection on the importance of workplace dignity, as an impactful and important organizational phenomenon that affects either positively or negatively on employee well-being and performance, hence workplace dignity must be prioritized within work environmental infrastructures.

Notes

Correction: BMC Nursing (2024) 23:715 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-02376-z The original article contains a typo in affiliation #5. ‘Guld’ should instead be ‘Gulf’.

Open Access: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The license is attached to this item record.

Original article citation: de Beer, J., Rawas, H. & Beheri, W. Workplace dignity amongst clinical nurses. BMC Nurs 23, 715 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-02376-z

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Author Details

Jennifer de Beer, PhD; Hawazen Rawas, PhD; Wadea Beheri, PhD

Sigma Membership

Alpha Gamma Epsilon

Type

Article

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Descriptive/Correlational

Research Approach

Other

Keywords:

Workplace, Workplace Well-Being, Workplace Dignity, Clinical Nurses

Publisher

Springer Nature

Version

Publisher's Version

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

External Review: Previously Published Material

Acquisition

Indexed Previously Published Material (Per Creative Commons License)

Date of Issue

2025-12-18

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