Job satisfaction of paediatric nurses working in tertiary care hospitals in Greece — Determining factors

Background: Professional satisfaction affects the quality and the effectiveness of health services provided to patients. Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting the job satisfaction of paediatric nurses. Participants and setting: Nurses working at two Pediatric Hospitals in Athens (n=176) were included in the study. The data collection took place during the January-May 2022 period. The completion of the questionnaires was anonymous, all participant data were kept confidential. Methods: Data collection was carried out using the ‘Measure of Job Satisfaction-MJS’ (Cronbach's α=0.95). Statistical processing was performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 23 (SPSS, Inc. Chigago IL, USA). Univariate analysis of variance (univariate ANOVA) was used to evaluate the means of the job satisfaction questionnaire values. The significance level was set at α <0.05. Finally, Pearson's correlation index test was performed to find correlations between the subcategories of the questionnaire Results: The majority of the sample was female (n=161) and most nurses underwent a 3-year nursing education programme (n=147). The results of the study showed that 45.4% of the participants were generally satisfied with their work whereas 55.9% were dissatisfied with their salary. The factors that appeared to affect the professional satisfaction of nurses were age (p=.049), unit (p=.041), work experience (p=.002) and marital status (p=.034). Nurses, despite their high compassion satisfaction, experienced modest levels of compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress. Pearson's correlation index revealed a positive correlation (r=0.462) between the ‘burnout’ and ‘secondary traumatic stress’ variables. Conclusions: Professional satisfaction of nurses is characterised as moderate. The most important factors influencing professional satisfaction were age, unit, work experience and marital status. Improving nurses' job satisfaction will contribute to effective and safe nursing care provided to paediatric patients. Practical implications: Leaders aiming at optimising nurses' job satisfaction should consider decreasing workload, improving education in the workplace, applying rotation in stressful units, increasing income, increasing the percentage perspectives by improving work circumstances.