Design:  A descriptive, exploratory design  was selected to answer two research questions:  1. What is the relationship between nurse’s job satisfaction and:  total nursing hours per patient day; RN hours per patient day; overall patient satisfaction and; patients’ satisfaction with nursing care?  2.  Which components of nurses’ job satisfaction impact  patient’s overall satisfaction and satisfaction with nursing care?

Methodology:  Third quarter NDNQI and Gallop data from critical care, progressive, and general medical-surgical units (n=8) in one large acute care general hospital for 2005 and 2006,  were subjected to statistical analysis using Spearman’s rho  at the p<.05 level of significance. 

Findings:  Significant positive correlations were found between: 1. total nursing hours per patient day and overall patient satisfaction (p=.004, 2005; p=.001, 2006) and patients’ satisfaction with nursing care (p=.047, 2005; p=.002, 2006) and;  2.  RN hours per patient day and overall patient satisfaction (p=.000, 2005 and p=.001, 2006) and patients’ satisfaction with nursing care (p=.021, 2005 and p=.028, 2006) . Elements of nurses' job satisfaction showed no relationships to patient satisfaction in 2006.  In 2005  significance occurred between: 1. tasks (p=.010) and time for patient care (p=.000) and patients’ overall satisfaction and;  2. between tasks (p=.000) and time for patient care (p=.004) and patients’ satisfaction with nursing care.  Conclusion: We demonstrated the potential value of using existing data sets to test nursing hypotheses related to unit characteristics and patient outcomes.