Nurse's satisfaction with their working environment in a public sector hospital

[摘要] Introduction: The nursing profession in South Africa has lost skilled nurses due to intenseinternational recruitment drives. This hospital in the West Rand has also failed to recruit and retainskilled nurses. The shortage of skilled nurses has led to a deterioration in the quality of patient care.The aims of this study: The aim of this study was to investigate nurses’ perceptions about theirworking environment and conditions, and their intention to stay in the workplace in this regionalhospital.The methodology: A quantitative, descriptive survey was used. The data were collected using theMinnesota satisfaction questionnaire. The sample included professional and sub professional (staffand auxiliary) nurses. A stratified (random) sampling method was used. Respondents were onehundred and seventeen (117), namely, sixty two (62) professionals and fifty five (55) subprofessionals.Results: Generally all the nurses were moderately satisfied with the intrinsic aspects of their job,such as motivation, responsibility, opportunity for creativity and innovation, independence, andrecognition. Alarmingly nurses were to a greater extent dissatisfied with the extrinsic aspects oftheir job, namely, relationships in the workplace, supervisors’ decision-making skills, supervision,working conditions, policies, job security, and compensation.Conclusions: This study indicated that the important extrinsic aspects were not in place. Theemployer (Department of Health) needs to make major efforts in improving nurses’ salaries,promotion and advancement opportunities, and to empower all unit and area managers in the areasof supervisory skills, decision-making, communication, and mentoring of nurses.

[发布机构] University of the Witwatersrand