Regina M. Matera
Published: 1988
Total Pages: 190
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The initial incentives for conducting this research were the alarming amount of dissatisfaction expressed by nurses about their profession, the increase amount of turnovers in the profession of nursing and the decrease amount of people choosing nursing as a profession. It had been suggested in previous studies that flextime could influence the level of job satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to compare the levels of job satisfaction between full-time registered professional staff nurses who work the twelve hour shift with full time registered professional staff nurses who work the traditional eight hour shift; and to compare the levels of job satisfaction between full time registered professional staff nurses who work the day shift with full time registered professional staff nurses who work the night shift. The hypothesis used in this study were that full time registered professional staff nurses who work the twelve hour shift would have a higher level of job satisfaction than full time registered professional staff nurses who work the eight hour shift and full time registered professional staff nurses who work the day shift would have a higher level of job satisfaction than full time registered professional staff nurses who work the night shift. The level of job satisfaction was measured by scores in Brayfield and Rothe's Index of Job Satisfaction as well as turnover and sick call rates, The Index of Job Satisfaction which measures satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and has been used widely in previous studies, was distributed to forty full time registered professional nurses working in a staff capacity. Fifty percent of the participants worked the eight hour shift and fifty percent worked the twelve hour shift. Half of the population worked the day shift and half the night shift. The response rate was 100%. The hypothesis that full time registered professional staff nurses working the twelve hour shift would have a higher level of job satisfaction than full time registered professional staff nurses working the eight hour shift was proven null. The second hypothesis was weakly supported. Full time registered professional staff nurses working the day shift had a higher level of job satisfaction than full time registered professional staff nursing working the night shift but the difference was not significant at a significance level of .0S. The results of this research project are open to varying interpretations because of some discrepancies seen in the demographic data of the participants, as well as unforeseen discrepancies in external factors which may have led to skewed results.
