Background: Nurses are the caregivers at the front line. Heavy workload may result in exhaustion and discontent. Purpose: This study was aimed to explore the relationships between the nursing workload and job satisfaction among staff nurses in Taiwan, and, furthermore, to provide hospital managers evidence to establish a positive and pleasant nursing care environment in order to improve job satisfaction for staff nurses. Method: This was a correlational study using secondary data analysis from ”Nursing Utilization of Resources, Staffing and Environment (NURSE) on outcomes study” funded by Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan through 2008 to 2010. Thirty-five hospitals were included (4 Academic Medical Centers, 9 Metropolitan Hospitals and 22 Local Community Hospitals respectively) with 117 nursing units (57 medical units, 50 surgical units and 10 general units). Of 1846 nurses participated. Data were retrieved from the NURSE-outcome study database. Regression analysis was applied to examine the relationship between job satisfaction and other variables, including the demographic variables and workload. Results: There was negative correlation between nursing workload of the technical ratio N skill mix and job satisfaction (- 0.244, P < .05), and nursing units with higher the proportion of N skill mix showed lower satisfaction among staff nurses (25.5% of variance). N skill mix of technologies is a predictor of job satisfaction among staff nurses. Conclusion: We suggest that appropriate nursing schedule should consider the factor of skill mix. Job satisfaction can therefore be improved if junior nurses can handle problems with guidance from senior nurses with more experienced and higher level of skill mix.
Background: Nurses are the caregivers at the front line. Heavy workload may result in exhaustion and discontent. Purpose: This study was aimed to explore the relationships between the nursing workload and job satisfaction among staff nurses in Taiwan, and, furthermore, to provide hospital managers evidence to establish a positive and pleasant nursing care environment in order to improve job satisfaction for staff nurses. Method: This was a correlational study using secondary data analysis from ”Nursing Utilization of Resources, Staffing and Environment (NURSE) on outcomes study” funded by Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan through 2008 to 2010. Thirty-five hospitals were included (4 Academic Medical Centers, 9 Metropolitan Hospitals and 22 Local Community Hospitals respectively) with 117 nursing units (57 medical units, 50 surgical units and 10 general units). Of 1846 nurses participated. Data were retrieved from the NURSE-outcome study database. Regression analysis was applied to examine the relationship between job satisfaction and other variables, including the demographic variables and workload. Results: There was negative correlation between nursing workload of the technical ratio N skill mix and job satisfaction (- 0.244, P < .05), and nursing units with higher the proportion of N skill mix showed lower satisfaction among staff nurses (25.5% of variance). N skill mix of technologies is a predictor of job satisfaction among staff nurses. Conclusion: We suggest that appropriate nursing schedule should consider the factor of skill mix. Job satisfaction can therefore be improved if junior nurses can handle problems with guidance from senior nurses with more experienced and higher level of skill mix.