The impact of environmental and demographic factors on nursing job satisfaction

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate all aspects of job satisfaction in registered nurses working in different hospitals in Shiraz, Iran. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was performed during February to August 2015 in Shiraz, Iran. It comprised of 371 registered nurses working in government and private hospitals using multi-stage cluster sampling. Job satisfaction was evaluated using 5 items of the Job Descriptive Index (JDI) consisting of 63 questions developed by Smith, Kendall, and Hulin (1969). Statistical tests including independent sample t test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used in order to identify the relation between job satisfaction, and demographic features and work environment. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 15.0, using descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-test, and ANOVA. RESULTS: Our findings showed no relationship between demographic variables and job satisfaction. However, a significant association was observed between environmental aspects such as work rotation (fixed versus rotating) nurse’s status (staff vs. supervisors), type of hospitals (governmental vs. private) and work (p<0.01), promotion (p<0.02) and pay (p<0.01) items respectively; however, type of hospital was deemed exempt regarding promotion. Also regarding the number of shifts per week, nurses with more than eight shifts present a lower mean score of satisfaction about pay significantly (p=0.03). CONCLUSION: The results concerning younger nurses have different types of satisfaction based on several environmental factors. Nurses’ policy makers must pay more attention to nurses’ satisfaction and focus on reducing the various inequalities.