Author: Yang, K. P. and Huang, C. K.

Objective: The purpose of this descriptive and correlational study was to examine the effects of staff nurses' morale on patient satisfactions.

Methods: A convenient sample of 332 staff nurses and 265 inpatients from 21 med-surg units in a 1394-bed medical center in Taiwan was selected to collect data. A nursing-sensitive patient satisfaction scale was distributed to patients who were ready to discharge and has been admitted at least 3 days. A nurse staffs’ morale scale adapted from Litwin Stringer (1981) was distributed to the sample nurses. Descriptive statistics, repeated measure of ANOVA, and multiple regression were used to analyze the data.

Results: a) The major content of forming nurses’ morale was group cohesiveness; working involvement, however, played a vital role on patient satisfaction. b) Care accessibility, art of care, and the continuity of care were the most essential factors contributed to patient satisfaction. c) Result of patient satisfaction measured by magnitude estimation was more positive than result from a dimension rating.

Conclusions: The effects of staff nurses’ morale on patient outcomes as measured by patient satisfaction were not significantly showed. One of the aspects of the morale of nurses, working involvement, however, played a vital role on patient satisfaction. Further investigations on factors associated with working involvement and others factors forming nurses’ morale such as organizational and professional commitment are necessary. Other indicators of patient outcome related to nurses’ morale need to be examined additionally.

Contact: Name: Yang, K. P., RN., Ph.D. Position: President, Cardinal Tien College of Nursing Address: Cardinal Tien College of Nursing, 364, Chung-Cheng Rd., Hsintien, Taipei, Taiwan 231 Tel: +886-2-2219-3590 Fax: +886-2-2219-7718 E-mail: kp@ctcn.edu.tw

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