INTRODUCTION:

The concept of job satisfaction has been developed by many researchers, among these the most famous definition is “job satisfaction is a pleasurable emotional state resulting from their own job experiences” ¹. It is also meant that how does an individual like his or her job or satisfy or not. Job satisfaction can be understood in terms of 14 common facets such as appreciation, type of supervision, security, recognition, opportunities for promotion, policies and procedures, opportunities for personal growth, nature of work, job conditions, fringe benefits, colleagues and types of communication ². Here, investigators torched the light to assess the job satisfaction among community health nurses.

The nursing profession has been changed from physician's handmaiden in the bedside to independent nurse practitioners. The expanded roles of nursing has reached various realms of society such as clinical nurse, nurse educator, nurse practitioner and public health nurse. Community health nursing is a synthesis of nursing practice and community health. Here, community health nurses focus on a specific population including individual, family and groups for promotion, prevention, curation, rehabilitation of health. They play an essential role in improving the population's health and delivering the essential health services to the community, but these work force faces significant challenges. Recruitment and retention of nurses are the persistent problems in many countries, which is associated with job satisfaction ³. Health sectors are allocated with majority of female nurses, are burden with different work. In addition to routine activities, public health nurses have to do home visit, carry out national health programmes, report writing and so on. There are some other factors such as gender discrimination, exploitation of women employees, low basic pay, poor working conditions, work load, extended working hours etc increase the rate job dissatisfaction. Thus, the rate of job dissatisfaction leads to critical shortage of man power in health care in many countries and the employee turnover is increasing day by day in public health sector. India is one of those countries with shortage of manpower in tribal, rural and urban areas ⁴. The statistics published by Government of India in 2011 showed that there is a shortfall of 12.0% of doctors in primary health centers, 33.9% of public health nurses and 35.3% of male health assistants in rural areas. The above mentioned data showed that the satisfaction among health care providers are yet to be achieved in many countries.

Are public health nurses motivated? Are they paid well? Are they satisfied with quality of professional life? Are they overloaded? Are they secured in the job? Are they provided with opportunities for career advancement? Are they able to address issues to authority?. Keeping these questions in mind, the investigators conducted a study to assess the job satisfaction among community health nurses in community health nursing department, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India.

OBJECTIVES:

· To assess the demographic variables of community health nurses

· To assess the job satisfaction among community health nurses

· To associate between the job satisfaction among community health nurses and selected socio-demographic variables such as years of experience, designation and salary.

METHODS:

A quantitative approach using descriptive design was used to assess the job satisfaction among community health nurses. A cross sectional approach was used. The study was conducted in Community Health Nursing Department, Vellore. The study population consist of community health nurses who are working in Community Health Nursing Department under the designation of lecturers, tutors, staff and ANM. The investigators selected the subjects by using convenient sampling method. The list of subjects was collected from the Community Health Nursing Department to include all of them in the study. The sample size was 30. The tool was developed by investigators, which was verified by experts from Community Health nursing Department. It consisted of demographic data and 20 items which covers the dimensions of nature of job and salary. All items were rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). Scoring was done by summing responses for all items under each component and higher scores indicate higher satisfaction rate. Data collection was done for a period of one week. The investigators explained the purpose of the study to study subjects. Informed written consent was obtained and then, the self reported questionnaire was administered to them to collect demographic data and level of job satisfaction. The confidentiality and anonymity were maintained throughout the study. The collected data were analyzed, tabulated using Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows using descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean, average and standard deviation. Inferential statistics was used to assess the association between two variables with Fishers Exact test and One Way ANOVA test.

RESULTS:

The first objective of the study was to assess the demographic variables of community health nurses. It is showed that the majority of the community health nurses 66.7% were less than 25 years of age. Among them, 96.7% of the community health nurses were females and 3.3% of them were males. It is seen that 70% of them were graduated, 6.7% were post graduated and 13.3% were diploma nurses. The occupational status of the community health nurses based on the revised Kuppuswamy scale 2007 shown in the Table 1.

Table 1 Distribution of community health nurses based on the occupational status (n=30)

S.No

Demographic variables

Designation

Lecturer

Tutor

Staff

ANM

6.7

16.7

66.7

10.0

Salary

4380-6560

6570-8750

8760-17515

>17520

3.3

33.3

50.0

13.3

Experience in years

>1mt-1yr

>1-3yrs

>3-6yrs

>6yrs

63.3

13.3

10.0

13.3

Education

Higher Secondary

Diploma

Graduate

10.0

13.3

70.0

6.7

The second objective of the study was to assess the job satisfaction of community health nurses. It is showed that 86.7% of the community health nurses are satisfied with their work and 66.7% of them are satisfied with their payment. It is reported that 93.3% of them are satisfied with the quality of professional life with the patients in the community, 93.4% of them are satisfied with the career support and guidance from the authority and opportunities for promotion in the institution. Among community health nurses, only 23.3% of them are dissatisfied with the work load and stress at work. It is shown that 100% of them are satisfied with the job security in the institution and 70% of them are happy with the opportunities available in the institution to advance their career in the public health field. It is shown that 33.4% of them are dissatisfied with the lack of approval of independent decisions from the authority. Majority of the community health nurses are satisfied with the job (76.7%) because of time available for the patient and family care. It is reported that 53.4% of them are satisfied with the recreational facilities in the institution and 83.3% of them with the quality of supervision from the authority. It is shown that 96.7% of them are satisfied with the effectiveness of the work what they do it in public health sector.

The third objective of the study was to associate between the job satisfaction and socio demographic variables of community health nurses. There is no significant association between the job satisfaction and socio demographic variables of community health nurses in the present study.

DISCUSSION:

In the present study, it is shown that 86.7% of them are satisfied with their work. Similarly, high job satisfaction reported in a study conducted in United States of America among 88 public health nurses to assess the job satisfaction in the rural areas ⁵. A study conducted in a state in India among public health workers showed that 75.26% of them over loaded with the work and 55.6% of them reported for role stagnation in their professional life ⁶. Nonetheless, in the present study reports showed that only 23.3% of them were overloaded and 93.4% of them are satisfied with the opportunities for promotion in the institution. The job satisfaction and motivation are the effective components in the professional life to retain the health workers and to deliver the health care services effectively in the developing as well as developed countries. The cross sectional survey conducted in North India, among 1916 public health workers, aimed to identify health worker's satisfaction related to motivation showed that majority of them are highly motivated with the 'good employment pay benefits'⁷. Similarly, in the present study, 66.7% of them are satisfied with the payment for their job.

A descriptive study was conducted to describe the characteristics of organizational structure and job satisfaction in public health nursing showed that a significant relation was found between them and other factors such as work environments in which supervisors consult and discuss together concerning job tasks and decisions, are positively related to job satisfaction ⁸. Similarly, in the present study it is showed that 93.4% of the community health nurses are satisfied with the career support, supervision and guidance from the authority in the institution, which is positively related to job satisfaction.

A study to establish the current level of job satisfaction and determinants among public health nurses showed low level of job satisfaction, in relation with poor quality of professional life and lack of autonomy to take and implement independent decisions in their professional life ⁹. The current study reports denoted that 33.4% of them are dissatisfied the job because of lack of approval of independent decisions from the authority. A study conducted in Greek public health nurses reported with low level of job satisfaction because of poor health related quality of life ¹⁰. In contradiction, current study findings showed that 53.4% of them are happy with the recreational facilities available in the institution to feel them stress free, which is a strong indicator for job satisfaction. A study conducted in Primary health centers in India, to compare the job satisfaction among contract and permanent staff, reported with low levels of job satisfaction among temporary staff ^4,11. In the present study, 100% of the community health nurses feel that they are well secured in their job, which adds to their rate for job satisfaction.

CONCLUSION:

To conclude, the present study torches the light on rate of job satisfaction among public health nurses in a community health nursing department in India and factors contributing to satisfaction or dissatisfaction from the employee's perspectives. This study results helps the nurse administrators to focus on determinants of job satisfaction such as pay, quality of professional life, career support, promotion, incentives, work load, stress at work, job security, colleagues, autonomy, recreational facilities, effectiveness of work and quality of supervision from the authority, helps to improve organizational structure, enhance job satisfaction, retain and attract the public health nurse workforce to deliver quality care to patients and families in the community to promote, prevent, care, cure and rehabilitate health.

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Received on 14.07.2016 Modified on 10.10.2016

Int. J. Adv. Nur. Management. 2017; 5(3): 191-194.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2652.2017.00042.7