A "snapshot" of key labour force and market issues in the nursing field, the study provides important baseline data from which the impact of present and future public policy trends and changes can be monitored, reviewed, and researched. The dimensions studied here include recent demographic shifts, the various forms of employment mobility, levels of voluntarism, career interruption, and nurses' reasons for leaving the field. Each line of inquiry raises pressing questions about the professional lives of those who work most directly and dynamically with patients but whose careers are being altered, perhaps detrimentally, by reorganization in the Canadian health care system. This book will be of great interest to nursing practitioners, educators and administrators, allied practitioners and policy makers, and social scientists with an interest in the labour market, work, occupations, and professions.

Health services have expanded in recent times because of scientific and technological developments, placing further pressure on budgets. Although health care provision remains a priority worldwide, there have been severe nursing staff shortages and growing disenchantment among the workforce, due to pay, job classification and career problems.

The hiring of part-time and temporary workers has historically been a mechanism for adjusting imbalances between supply and demand in the labor market. The use of such workers has increased dramatically as technological changes have put a premium on flexibility, and as fringe benefits have come to constitute an increasing percentage of labor costs. Flexibility is sought not only by organizations, but also by individuals: students, women with children, disabled persons, and retirees all benefit by part-time opportunities. Part-Time Work discusses these opportunities, and the risk involved in employment which is sometimes underpaid and devalued, and from which movement to full-time positions is difficult. This volume represents the work of a cross-section of specialists in labor economics, industrial relations specialists, and social scientists who are engaged in research on the transformation of work in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. Chapters focus on the structural aspects of part-time work, conditions under which such work is performed, constraints imposed on employers by official agencies, and expectations and attitudes of part-time workers rooted in a particular society. Part-Time Work will prove particularly useful to sociologists, labor specialists, and relevant government agencies, organizations, and unions.

CANADIAN NURSING: ISSUES AND PERSPECTIVES examines the issues and trends affecting contemporary Canadian nursing today. It features a strong historical base and presents current issues from an historical perspective. Content new to this edition includes coverage of research utilization, the shift to a community-oriented mode of care and case management.