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The purpose of this pilot study was to explore the relation between job satisfaction and quality of life of nurses in Taiwan. Another objective was to examine the relationship between the demographic characteristics of nurses and their job satisfaction and quality of life.
Methods:
The pilot study used a cross-sectional survey design. The purposive sampling method was used to administer questionnaires to informed participants. Thirty-one professional nurses working in medical centers in central and northern Taiwan returned completed questionnaires. Items on the questionnaire fall into three major categories: demographic characteristics, the Chinese version of the Nurses' Job Satisfaction Scale (Chinese version of MMSS) (Tsai, 2001), and World Health Organization Quality Of Life-BREF Taiwan Version (Taiwan version of WHOQOL-BREF) (Yao, 2005). Chinese version of MMSS is a 34-item, with a Likert scale ranging from 5 (very satisfied) to 1 (very dissatisfied). The range is 34-170, with higher scores indicating nurses feel more satisfied with their current job. Five domains were included: satisfaction with interaction, professional participation, extrinsic rewards, control over work environment, and schedule arrangement. Cronbach’s alpha for the 34-item has been reported previously as .94. World Health Organization Quality Of Life-BREF comprises 26 items, with the following four domains: physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environment. Additional two items were added to Taiwanese version of WHOQOL-BREF: “been respected and accepted” under social relationships domain, and “food” under environment domain. Five-point Likert scale ranges from 5 (very satisfied) to 1 (very dissatisfied). Domain-specific items scores were added first, then been averaged, and then been multiplied four to get the scores for each domain. The scores range is 4-20. The total scores of four domains were then been added together with overall quality of life and general health to represent overall quality of life scores. Total scores range from 24-120, with higher scores meaning better quality of life. Cronbach’s alpha for the 28-item has been demonstrated previously as .95. In the current pilot study, data analysis was carried out on SPSS 18.0 Chinese version. Besides descriptive analysis, t tests, One-Way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficients were also calculated to examine associations between each of the five job satisfaction domains and each of the six quality of life domains. Furthermore, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used to test demographic variables and quality of life variables. Finally, the significant correlation found between demographic variables and quality of life variables was tested with job satisfaction variables through regression analysis. A significance level of .05 was accepted.
Results:
The mean age of the participants was 27.6±4.25 years. All were female, with baccalaureate degree. Most were single (87.1%), working in the internal medicine wards (93.5%). Of the five job satisfaction domains, extrinsic rewards (mean score=2.43 /5) and professional participation (mean score=2.45 /5) were found to have the lowest scores. Number of working hours per week and self-perceived health status were shown to be significantly correlated with job satisfaction and quality of life. Self-perceived health status was reported to have a positive relationship with quality of life. Also, working less than forty-hour per week and having a positive self-perceived health status were demonstrated to have significant positive relationships with job satisfaction and quality of life. However, the study identified no significant relationship between job satisfaction and quality of life.
Conclusion:
Nurses who work over forty-hour per week tend to feel more dissatisfied with their jobs and have negative perceptions of their health statuses. This in turn affects the quality of life of nurses. It is quite likely that these factors lead to greater nurse turnover. The pilot study has implications for nursing administrators regarding the nursing overtime issue in Taiwan; Taiwanese nurses should continue to push policy makers to introduce nursing overtime regulations. One limitation of the current study is the small sample size. Evaluating whether there is a relation between job satisfaction and quality of life of nurses in Taiwan will necessitate the use of larger sample sizes in future studies.