THE PULSE OF NURSING: MEASURING NURSES’ WORK ENGAGEMENT

As nurses represent frontline employees and play the role of boundary spanners, their attitudes and behaviours will significantly influence quality of healthcare services. This is especially true for public hospitals because one such favourable attitude that has been shown to positively affect the display of good job performance is work engagement. Therefore, to ensure the delivery of highquality care to the public, it is essential that nurses exhibit positive attitudes through active work engagement. This study examined the level of work engagement among nurses, focusing on its three dimensions: vigor, dedication, and absorption. Work engagement was measured using the shortened nine-item version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9). The sample consisted of 420 staff nurses from three public hospitals in Peninsular Malaysia. Descriptive analysis revealed that nurses demonstrated a moderate to high level of overall work engagement. In particular, scores for vigor and dedication were high, while the absorption dimension registered a moderate level.