Factors influencing registered nurses perception of their overall job satisfaction: a qualitative study.

AIM: The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore factors related to critical care and medical-surgical nurses' job satisfaction as well as dissatisfaction in Iran.

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

METHOD: A convenient sample of 85 nurses from surgical, medical and critical care wards of a large hospital was recruited. Ten focus group discussions using a semi-structured interview guide were conducted. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using a thematic approach.

FINDINGS: The study identified three main themes that influenced nurses' job satisfaction and dissatisfaction: (1) spiritual feeling, (2) work environment factors, and (3) motivation. Helping and involvement in patient care contributed to the spiritual feeling reported to influence nurses' job satisfaction. For work environment factors, team cohesion, benefit and rewards, working conditions, lack of medical resources, unclear nurses' responsibilities, patient and doctor perceptions, poor leadership skills and discrimination at work played an important role in nurses' job dissatisfaction. For motivation factors, task requirement, professional development and lack of clinical autonomy contributed to nurses' job satisfaction.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND HEALTH POLICY: Nurse managers should ensure a flexible practice environment with adequate staffing and resources with opportunities for nurses to participate in hospital's policies and governance. Policy makers should consider nurses' professional development needs, and implement initiatives to improve nurses' rewards and other benefits as they influence job satisfaction.