A contextual work-life experiences model to understand nurse commitment and turnover.

AIMS: The aim of this study was to present a discussion and model depicting most effecting work-life experience contextual factors that influence commitment and turnover intentions for nurses in Sri Lanka. BACKGROUND: Increasing demand for nurses has made the retention of experienced, qualified nursing staff a priority for healthcare organizations and highlights the need to capture contextual work-life experiences that influence nurses' turnover decisions. DESIGN: Discussion paper. DATA SOURCES: This discussion paper and model is based on our experiences and knowledge of Sri Lanka and represents an integration of classic turnover research and commitment theory and others published between 1958 - 2017, contextualized to reflect the reality faced by Sri Lanka nurses. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: The model presents a high-level view of intrinsic, extrinsic, personal and professional antecedents to nurse turnover where relevance can be used by researchers, policy makers, clinicians and educators to establish focused and limited scope models and examine comprehensive contexts. CONCLUSION: This model emphasizes the role that work-life experiences play to fortify (or weaken) nurses' motivation to remain committed to their organization, profession, family, and country. Understanding of contextual work-life influences on nurses' intent to stay should lead to evidence-based strategies that result in a higher number of nurses wanting to remain in the nursing profession and work in the health sector in Sri Lanka.

The influence of gender, ethnicity, class, race, the women's and labour movements on the development of nursing in Sri Lanka.

The paper reveals that historically various socio-political factors, including gender, class, ethnicity, race, waves of colonization, decolonization, the civil and ethnic wars, the women's and labour movements, have influenced the development of nursing in Sri Lanka. However, literature presenting the development of nursing in Sri Lanka is sparse. All relevant journals and books published in the English and Sinhalese languages on nursing in Sri Lanka between the years 1878-2011 were examined. Because there are no nursing journals currently produced in Sri Lanka, CINAHL and Medline databases were accessed and relevant literature published in the English language on Sri Lanka was examined. Government, nurses' union and association reports, other unpublished reports and websites such as Google were also searched to access information related to the influence of gender, race, class, ethnicity, women's and labour movements in Sri Lanka. Poor pay, shortages of resources, failure in recruitment and retention and limited opportunity for career progression have acted as deterrents to persons entering and remaining in the nursing profession. Being non-British was a key issue in terms of race. Further, the shift from a colonized state to a welfare state resulted in a class shift from upper middle class to middle and lower class persons entering into nursing. Although there is a paucity of information available in the nursing literature, this analysis offers an intriguing insight into an angle that may be used to examine the influence of gender, ethnicity, class, race and the women's and labour movements in other contextual situations.

Representations, forbidden representations, and the unrepresentable: creating visibility for mapping emancipatory and transformative nursing praxis.

This article illustrates how different meanings are attested and contested in representations, forbidden representations, and the unrepresentable. Reflecting on real-life events and from a critical perspective, this analysis illustrates how shared representations and their language penetrate into spaces that we call reality and that these representations, forbidden representations, and the unrepresentable have profound influence on people's daily practices. Because of the influence these representations have on the health and well-being of individuals, there is a need for the development of multidimensional, interdisciplinary, and integrated approaches to care. Discourse promoting awareness of a critical representation perspective and the importance of practicing affirmative, emancipatory, and transformative nursing praxis for social justice should be included.

Interpretation: a political and social practice.

The purpose of this article was to illustrate that interpretation is a political and social practice and to explore the conceptualization of interpretation as a political and social practice within the discipline of nursing. A critical view of language, meaning, and interpretation reveals that words are influenced by sociopolitical context and empiricism is engulfed in interpretations derived from the environment. The deliberations reveal that how we perceive our nature of being in the world affects our interpretations. In contrast, from a critical theory lens the discussion reveals that interpretation becomes a process of penetration of different contexts and of an evolutionary praxis effecting transformation.