Job Satisfaction/Dissatisfaction Among Registered Nurses in The Hospital Setting

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to utilize Herzbe~g's approach to deter~ine the factors within a nursers job and.work environment ·that are most important to the registered. nurse. A convenience sample of 107 registered nurses from two acute care hospitals in the southeast United States participated in this survey and answered questions on the Longest (1974) questionnaire. This instrument is a 6-point Likert type tool designed to.1determine the nurses' pe~ception of the importance of Herzberg's ten motivation/hygiene factors to job satisfaction. A pilot study indicated that the instrument was understandable and easily com~leted. Face and content validity of the instrument were established by a review panel of three experts. A reliability coefficient of 0.5 was obtained. Dat~ analysis showed that these nurses rated both the motivation and hygiene factors as moderately important to very important in terms of job satisfaction. Using the paired t-test to compare mean· ratings of each subject on each factor, there was no significant difference between the means of the hygiene and motivation factors. A comparison of overall .job satisfaction .between medical/surgical nurses and those employed in other clinical areas of practice was conducted. A chi square test produced significant findings between the two practice groups. Nurses in medical/surgical areas reported more dissatisfaction in their jobs than did nurses working non-medical/surgical areas. Recommendations for further resea~ch include ./ further testing and refinement of the Longest questionnaire so that reliability is enhanced and further terminology/vocabulary·specific to the nursing profes~ion can be incorporated.,~ . Results of this study . should be utilized proactively by nurse executives in developing incentives and programs that create an attraction to the nursing field an~ an appealing image of the nurse and her work. Finally, a similar study in other geographical areas with a comparatively larger sample of nurses is suggested.