References
Job satisfaction of nurses working in public hospitals: perceptions of nurse unit managers in South Africa
Abstract
Background:
Job satisfaction among nurses often determines whether they choose to remain in the profession or in the facility where they work.
Aim:
The study sought to explore and describe the job satisfaction of registered nurses in South Africa through the lens of their nurse unit managers.
Methods:
A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive design was undertaken. Fourteen unit managers were interviewed and Tesch's method of data analysis was used.
Findings:
Four themes emerged: ‘staff shortages lead to nurses feeling overwhelmed and frustrated’, ‘nurses’ work performance is undermined by limited resources and poor infrastructure', ‘discontent among nurses with regard to poor top level and human resource management’ and ‘despite challenges, nurses experience rare moments of job satisfaction’.
Conclusion:
Unit managers need to find ways to enhance existing elements of job satisfaction by emphasising the nurse–patient relationship and teamwork among their staff in order to improve the overall job satisfaction of staff.
Job satisfaction among nurses is a critical component of hospital management and often determines whether nurses choose to remain in the profession or in the facility where they work. Job satisfaction can be defined as ‘how people feel about their jobs and different aspects of their jobs’ (Spector, 1997:2) and, hence, it is largely an attitudinal variable. Such attitudes improve when employees have positive feelings towards their working conditions (Sojane et al, 2016). Many variables affect a person's job satisfaction, including factors relating to autonomy, organisational limitations, management issues and recognition in the form of, for example, opportunities for advancement.
According to Curtis and Glacken (2014), job dissatisfaction implies that there is a problem that is closely linked to the job or the employee, and managers are required to evaluate their institutions to identify the causes of such problems. Hence, hospital management needs to be attentive to the levels of job satisfaction of their nurses to prevent high turnover rates, and they need to put in place precautions to prevent this from happening (Sabanciogullari and Dogan, 2015).
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