Job satisfaction in nursing staff of four health institutions

Abstract

Job satisfaction has been linked to performance and, in the health services, to the quality of the care being given.

Objectives: To establish the job satisfaction grade and to identify the factors associated to it in nursing staff of four tertiary care public health institutions.

Methodology: Cross-sectional, observational, and descriptive study. The sample comprised 594 nursing professionals. A survey was applied, it consisted of two sections, one of socio-demographic data and the other to measure the intrinsic and extrinsic factor relate to job satisfaction in accordance to the extended Font Roja questionnaire (9 factors with 26 total items).

Results: Instrument reliability with a cronbach’s alpha value of 0.8 was obtained. 35% of the respondents are specialized personnel; the job satisfaction score had a global mean of 101±10. Factor associated with dissatisfaction were job promotion and professional competence, factors with highest marks were interpersonal relationship with boss and workmates. Extrinsic factors did not show statistically significant differences.

Discussion: Results are consistent with the literature; professional promotion and job competence are the most affected factors. Institution C has the highest ranks in job satisfaction, the fact that a professional working in critical areas is more satisfied is highlighted too.

Conclusions. Nursing staff in the surveyed institutions have a medium to high level of job satisfaction, the identification of dissatisfaction and satisfaction factors is important to establish improvements in the health care quality.