Nurses’ motivators to work part-time

There has been a trend of growth in part-time employment within the Australian nursing workforce and currently half of the profession work part-time. While the literature across disciplines has postulated reasons behind preferences for part-time employment, little is known about nurses’ motivators to work part-time. In an era of nursing shortages that form considerable barriers to meeting healthcare service demands, a clear understanding of these motivators is critical for the effective planning and management of the nursing workforce. A grounded theory study that explored the phenomenon of part-time nursing found that nurses’ motivators to work part-time were complex and identifiable with nursing, establishing that nurses’ working time decisions are made in contexts that may be unique to the profession. This paper provides an exhaustive description and explanation of one cohort of part-time nurses that accounts for variations between nurses and provides an understanding of the complexity of factors that contribute to nurses’ decisions to work part-time.