The purpose of this proposed study of the nursing shortage is to identify a theoretical model which describes the importance of individual characteristics and job conditions in contributing to nurses; level of labor activity, job satisfaction tenure at employing agency, and commitment to nursing; and how these affect the standard of nursing care performed. Data from the 1988 Biennial Survey of Illinois RNs (n=59,805, 54.8% response rate) and the 1989 Biennial Survey of Illinois LPNs (population N=28,000), studies conducted by the principal investigator, will be used for secondary analysis for this proposed study. LISREL structural equation modeling will be used to identify the relationships among these characteristics, conditions and contributing factors, and how these effect nursing care performance. Five structural equation models will be tested, with the first equation dependent variable as level of labor activity, the second as job satisfaction, the third as agency tenure, the fourth as commitment to nursing, and the fifth as standard of nursing care performed. Variables represented as dependent in prior models will be entered last as independent variables in subsequent equations. The large data sets to be used will allow for subsample comparison of models for hospital employed and nonhospital employed nurses. The sample size also will allow for half of each subsample to be used for original modeling, with the second half for reliability testing of the models.
