Correction: Meaningful work and resilience among teachers: The mediating role of work engagement and job crafting.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222518.].

Meaningful work and resilience among teachers: The mediating role of work engagement and job crafting.

Research in the field of work and organizational psychology more and more highlights the importance of employees' experience of meaningful work. Adding to this area of research, the present study among teachers examined the relationship between meaningful work and resilience and tested whether this proposed relationship is mediated by teachers' work engagement and job crafting behaviour. Data for this study was collected among a group of Dutch teachers working in a school for primary education (N = 174). To test the hypothesized relationships, we conducted a bootstrapping analysis. The outcomes revealed that work engagement and job crafting fully mediated the relationship between meaningful work and teacher's resilience. The insights provided in this study may be useful for the deliberate cultivation of teachers' resilience and may help them to stay enthusiastic in their meaningful but demanding profession. Theoretical contributions, limitations, suggestions for future research and practical implications are discussed.

Employees' Perceived Opportunities to Craft and In-Role Performance: The Mediating Role of Job Crafting and Work Engagement.

The present study was designed to gain knowledge of the relationship between employees' perceived opportunities to craft, their actual job crafting behavior and, in line with JD-R theory, subsequently their work engagement and performance. Although scholars have suggested that employees' perceived opportunities to craft their job may predict their actual job crafting behavior, which may have consequences for their well-being and performance, no study has examined the relationships between these variables. We collected data among a heterogeneous group of Dutch employees (N = 2090). Participants of the study reported their perceived opportunities to craft, job crafting behavior, work engagement and performance. Results indicated that individuals who experience a high level of opportunities to craft reported higher levels of job crafting behavior. In turn, perceived opportunities to craft and job crafting behavior related to higher levels of work engagement and subsequently performance. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice.

Factors influencing nurse participation in continuing professional development activities: Survey results from the Netherlands.

BACKGROUND: Professionals are individually responsible for planning and carrying out continuing professional development (CPD) activities, ensuring their relevance to current practice and career development. The key factors that encourage nurses to undertake CPD activities are not yet clear. Several studies have investigated motives of nurses to participate in CPD programmes ("Motives"), the importance they attach to CPD ("Importance"), the conditions they consider necessary for participation ("Conditions"), and their actual participation in CPD activities ("Pursued"). The relationships among these variables, however, have neither been investigated nor reported to date. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to investigate the nature of the relationships among those factors that influence nurse participation in CPD in the Netherlands. DESIGN: An exploratory cross-sectional study was carried out using quantitative data collected with the previously validated Questionnaire Professional Development of Nurses (Q-PDN). SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS: A convenience sample of 5500 registered nurses working at one Dutch university hospital and several general hospitals was addressed. METHODS: A descriptive study using a survey was undertaken. The questionnaire was completed and returned by 1226 nurses. Correlation analyses were conducted to determine which factors were related to nurses undertaking CPD activities. Structural equation modelling was deployed to determine the relationships among the variables. RESULTS: "Conditions" was found to be moderately related to "Motives", which itself was strongly related to "Importance", which itself was very strongly related to "CPD activities pursued". If nurses considered a CPD activity important they were highly likely to pursue it; however, the importance attached to specific CPD activities was influenced by the presence of particular motives, which depended in part on the way CPD conditions were perceived. CONCLUSIONS: The key factor influencing CPD participation of nurses is how important they deem particular CPD activities; the latter is a function of their CPD motives and of their perceptions that the right conditions for participation are in place. Implications are discussed.

Motives and activities for continuing professional development: An exploration of their relationships by integrating literature and interview data.

BACKGROUND: To effectively enhance professional development, it is important to understand the motivational factors behind nurses' engagement in particular types of learning activities. Nurses have various motives for professional development and utilise different learning activities. Not much is known about how these relate. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between nurses' motives and activities for continuing professional development, by examining in which types of learning activities nurses engage, with which motives, and whether certain motives are associated with certain learning activities. DESIGN: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews. SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-one nurses in academic and general Dutch hospitals participated. METHODS: Interview data on nurses' learning biographies were analysed using a literature-based framework on motives and learning activities for continuing professional development. As recent classifications of nurses' motives for professional development were absent, the literature was reviewed for motives, using three databases. The interview transcripts were analysed for motives, learning activities and their relationships. RESULTS: Nine motives and four categories of learning activities for continuing professional development were delineated. Increasing competence was the primary motive that stimulated nurses to engage in self-directed learning during work, and in formal learning activities. To comply with requirements, they engaged in mandatory courses. To deepen knowledge, they registered for conferences. To develop their careers, they enrolled in postgraduate education. Five other motives were not mentioned as frequently. CONCLUSIONS: Specific motives were found to be related to engagement in particular learning activities. Nurses could use these findings to increase their awareness of why and how they develop professionally, and managers and human resource development professionals could develop approaches that would better suit nurses' needs.

The development and empirical validation of the Q-PDN: a questionnaire measuring continuing professional development of nurses.

BACKGROUND: Although separate studies among nurses have been conducted into their continuing professional development (CPD) motives, importance attached to CPD, conditions deemed needed for CPD, and actual CPD activities undertaken, these variables have not yet been investigated at the same time, on the same sample. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to report on the development and initial psychometric testing of the Q-PDN, a questionnaire measuring several aspects of CPD among nurses. METHOD: Based on a survey administered to 1329 nurses in hospitals in the Netherlands, a multi-dimensional instrument for CPD was validated. The constructs 'CPD motives', 'CPD importance', 'CPD conditions', and 'CPD activities undertaken' were established through factor analyses. RESULTS: Reliability analyses showed satisfactory to good Cronbach's alpha scores on all factors, ranging from .70 to .89. CONCLUSION: Using this instrument can stimulate and support CPD of nurses, which has been shown to contribute to increasing the quality of care. Human resource development (HRD) professionals, educators in healthcare, and managers can use this questionnaire to gain insight in the extent to which nurses undertake CPD activities, in the importance they attribute to CPD activities, in the conditions they deem necessary to participate in CPD, and in the motives that they have to engage in CPD.

Strategies for continuing professional development among younger, middle-aged, and older nurses: a biographical approach.

BACKGROUND: A nursing career can last for more than 40 years, during which continuing professional development is essential. Nurses participate in a variety of learning activities that correspond with their developmental motives. Lifespan psychology shows that work-related motives change with age, leading to the expectation that motives for continuing professional development also change. Nevertheless, little is known about nurses' continuing professional development strategies in different age groups. OBJECTIVES: To explore continuing professional development strategies among younger, middle-aged, and older nurses. METHODS: A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews, from a biographical perspective. Data were analysed using a vertical process aimed at creating individual learning biographies, and a horizontal process directed at discovering differences and similarities between age groups. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-one nurses in three age groups from general and academic hospitals in the Netherlands. RESULTS: In all age groups, daily work was an important trigger for professional development on the ward. Performing extra or new tasks appeared to be an additional trigger for undertaking learning activities external to the ward. Learning experiences in nurses' private lives also contributed to their continuing professional development. Besides these similarities, the data revealed differences in career stages and private lives, which appeared to be related to differences in continuing professional development strategy; 'gaining experience and building a career' held particularly true among younger nurses, 'work-life balance' and 'keeping work interesting and varied' to middle-aged nurses, and 'consistency at work' to older nurses. CONCLUSIONS: Professional development strategies can aim at performing daily patient care, extra tasks and other roles. Age differences in these strategies appear to relate to tenure, perspectives on the future, and situations at home. These insights could help hospitals to orientate continuing professional development approaches toward the needs of all age groups. This should be particularly relevant in the face of present demographic changes in the nursing workforce.

An empirical typology of hospital nurses' individual learning paths.

BACKGROUND: A relatively new theoretical concept is proposed in this paper, namely, the individual learning path. Learning paths are created by individual employees and comprise a set of learning-relevant activities that are both coherent as a whole and meaningful to them. OBJECTIVES: To explore the empirical basis of this theoretical concept. DESIGN: A qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews. SETTINGS: Two academic medical centers (university hospitals) and two general hospitals in the Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 89 nurses were involved in the study. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were analyzed qualitatively; cluster analysis was then performed on quantified data from the interviews. RESULTS: Four types of learning path emerged, namely, the formal-external, self-directed, social-emotional, and information-oriented learning paths. CONCLUSIONS: The relatively new theoretical concept of an individual learning path can be observed in practice and a number of different learning-path types can be distinguished. Nurses were found to create their own learning paths, that is, select a theme that is relevant primarily to themselves, conduct a variety of learning activities around this theme, participate in social contexts that might help them, and mobilize learning facilities provided by their organization. These activities go way beyond the notion of employees as self-directed learners merely in a didactic sense (establishing learning goals, choosing the right learning activities for these goals, evaluating to what extent their goals have been met as a result). The findings can be interpreted as evidence of employees acting strategically when it comes to their professional development. Providers of continuing professional education/development need to take this into account.

The development and validation of the On-the-job Learning Styles Questionnaire for the Nursing Profession.

AIM: This paper is a report of a study to develop and test the psychometric properties of the On-the-job Learning Style Questionnaire for the Nursing Profession. BACKGROUND: Although numerous questionnaires measuring learning styles have been developed, none are suitable for working environments. Existing instruments do not meet the requirements for use in workplace settings and tend to ignore the influence of different learning situations. METHOD: The questionnaire was constructed using a situation-response design, measuring learning activities in different on-the-job learning situations. Content validity was ensured by basing the questionnaire on interview studies. The questionnaire was distributed to 912 Registered Nurses working in different departments of 13 general hospitals in the Netherlands at the end of 2005. FINDINGS: The response rate was 41% (372 questionnaires). The internal factor structure of the questionnaire was partly based on the learning activities in which nurses participate and partly on the learning situation in which they are performed. The internal consistency was good. The situation-response design of the questionnaire demonstrated its added value. Construct validity was estimated using intercorrelations between the scales, and criterion validity was estimated based on the relationships of the scales with perceived professional competence. CONCLUSION: The On-the-job Learning Styles Questionnaire for the Nursing Profession is well suited to describing nurses' learning styles in on-the-job settings and has satisfactory psychometric properties.