Nurse Job Satisfaction And Its Influencing Factors In 3-A-grade General Hospitals In Beijing

Background: Nursing work is a commitment to human health service, nurse job satisfaction is highly relevant to the health care service quality, work efficiency, turnover and patients satisfaction with nursing care. Nowadays, the shortage of nurses and the high turnover rate have become the international issues of concern. Therefore, as the important factor of improving nursing quality and making nurse team stable, nurse job satisfaction should be paid more attention by the hospital supervisors. At present, nurse job satisfaction needs further study in China.Objective: The purposes of this study were to describe the states of nurse job satisfaction in 3-A-grade general hospitals in Beijing and to analyze its influencing factors.Methods: A descriptive design was used. By Multi-stage sampling, 1400 nurses in clinical departments were recruited from four 3-A-grade general hospitals in Beijing in the period from July to November, 2008. The McCloskey/Mueller Satisfaction Scale (MMSS) was used to measure nurse job satisfaction. The Job Diagnostic Survey, the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI), demographic questionnaire and hospital organizational factors Scale were used to collect information about the factors that could affect nurse job satisfaction.Results: (1) The average score of nurse job satisfaction was 2.70±0.15 (score range of 1～5), scored the highest one of satisfaction with co-workers (3.53±0.62), the lowest one of satisfaction with extrinsic rewards (1.98±0.72). (2) Multiple linear regression analysis showed that 13 of the matching variables into the regression model to explain 56.2 percent of the total variance of nurse job satisfaction. The factors included the job characteristics of autonomy and feedback from others, work-related environmental factors of nurse participation in hospital affairs, nurse manager ability and support of nurses, staffing and resource adequacy, collaboration of doctor and nurse, the organizational factors of the number of patients transferred to wards / beds, bed utilization and demographic factors of having children or not, scheduling, education, department and the matching degree of personality and nursing work. Conclusions: (1) The level of nurse job satisfaction was low. (2) The influencing factors of nurse job satisfaction included autonomy, feedback from others, nurse participation in hospital affairs, nurse manager ability and support of nurses, staffing and resource adequacy, collaboration of doctor and nurse, the number of patients transferred to wards / beds, bed utilization, having children or not, scheduling, education, department and the matching degree of personality and nursing work. Scientific assessment of the value of nursing services, the establishment of a fair and reasonable remuneration system and the welfare system were primary issues to improve the nurse job satisfaction. Further studies should be conducted to improve the job satisfaction of nurses.