A Study Of Work Value And Job Satisfaction Among Contract Nurses In Sichuan Province

BackgroundWith the personnel reform in the medical institutions, the rate of contract nurse has increased every year and the high turnover becomes an important issue for nursing managers. Job satisfaction is an effective indicator forecast for nurse turnover and patient satisfaction. Therefore, to survey and explore the factors affecting nursing job satisfaction can provide strong empirical support for stabling contract nurse and increasing patient satisfaction. Research findings indicated that the employee's job satisfaction is related to their work value. As an important component of human values, work value reflexes the contract nurses' demands on work. Analyzing the diversity of contract nurses' work value can help nursing managers motivate them objectively, which is helpful for improving the quality and efficiency of clinical care.ObjectiveThe purpose of this paper was to investigate job satisfaction and work value of contract nurses in Sichuan province and to study the relationship between job satisfaction and work value, which provided the basis for nursing human resources management decisions.Participants By using the methods of descriptive research, questionnaires were conducted to 1221 contract nurses in 8 3-Class general hospitals. The practice nurses and advanced students are excluded.InstrumentationJob satisfaction: The short-form of Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), developed by Weiss et al. It contains 20 items, including three dimensions: intrinsic satisfaction, extrinsic satisfaction and general satisfaction. Cronbachαcoefficient: 0.820～0.849, test-retest reliability: 0.733～0.759.Work value: Work Value Questionnaire, developed by zhang Aiqing. It contains 52 items and 13 dimensions. The validity and reliability was measured as: CVI=0.846, IA=0.865, Cronbachαcoefficient: 0.622～0.860, test-retest reliability: 0.714.Statistical MethodsData were calculated by spss 13.0 and pems 3.0 for windows statistical package. The frequency and composition were used to describe the general data of contract nurses. The median arid quartile were used to describe job satisfaction and work value. The difference among the dimensions of work value and job satisfaction was analyzed by Friedman test and q test. The diversity of work value among different groups was compared by multi-variance analysis. The diversity of dimensions among different groups was compared by Kruskal-Wallis H, Mann-Whitney U test and Nemenyi test. The Level of significance was set at 0.05. Stepwise regression analysis was used to explore the influence factors on job satisfaction.Results1. 78.1% of the contract nurses were younger than 25 years old. 70.7% of them had less than 3 years of work experiences. The percentage with them had less than 3 years of work experiences. The percentage with junior college degree was 70.7%.2. The work value of contract nurses: the top three work value dimensions were relationship, achievement and economic rewards (median: 13, 12, 12), and the last three were aesthetics, innovation and social interaction (median: 8, 9, 9).3. The job satisfaction of contract nurses: the score of intrinsic satisfaction was 2.667, general satisfaction was 2.500 and extrinsic satisfaction was 2.600. The top three items were moral values, social status and co-workers (median: 3, 3, 3). The last three were compensation, advancement and activity (median: 1, 2, 2).4. The work value of contract nurses differed in age, marriage status, work time and professional title(P=0.012, 0.006, 0.000, 0.049). Scores of the economic rewards dimension had significant difference among different age groups (P=0.004). Scores of the social communications dimension had significant difference between different marriage status groups (P=0.005). Contract nurses with different work experiences gave different scores to economic rewards, social communications and security (P=0.000, 0.000, 0.009). Scores of the intellectual stimulation dimension had significant difference between different professional title groups (P=0.030).No significant differences were observed among different age, marriage status, education, work time and professional title groups in job satisfaction survey.5. Stepwise regression analysis applied to determine the main effect factors of job satisfaction indicated that economic rewards, relationship, intellectual stimulation, aesthetics, comfortable, social status, altruism (13=-0.319, 0.239, 0.203, 0.124, -0.095, 0.077, 0.073) had statistically significant impact on job satisfaction. 1. The age structure of contract nurses was young and their professional title and posts were at low level.2. Contract nurses attached great importance to relationships, individual achievement and economic rewards.3. Work value of contract nurses had modulatory effect on their job satisfaction.Study Limitations1. Since this study was a cross-sectional survey and lack of historical comparison, further study should be done to identify the causality of these factors.2. Larger population should be chosen for further study.