Factors influencing job satisfaction among registered nurses: a questionnaire survey in Mashhad, Iran.

BACKGROUND: Job satisfaction is a critical factor in health care. Strong empirical evidence supports a causal relationship between job satisfaction, patient safety and quality of care.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the level of nurses' job satisfaction and its associated factors.

METHOD: A stratified random sample of 421 registered nurses working at a large hospital in Mashhad, Iran was surveyed.

RESULT: The results showed that autonomy, task requirement and work interaction had scores higher than their respective median on the subscales. There were significant differences between demographic characteristics and the autonomy, task requirement, work interaction, salary, work condition, professional development, supportive nursing management, decision making, professional status subscales and mean total job satisfaction. In univariate analysis, young age, being female and being married were significantly associated with a higher level of job satisfaction. The adjusted R(2) for this model was 0.14, indicating that the model explained 14% of the variability. The regression model was highly significant, F (4298) = 13.194, P < 0.001.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The authors emphasise that the human resources policies and incentives need to be re-visited. Efforts undertaken to improve working conditions, supportive nursing management, improved professional status, professional development and increased salaries are some of the ways for nurse managers to improve job satisfaction.