Intrarole Conflict and Job Satisfaction on Psychiatric Units

To determine if intrarole conflict existed among role reciprocals who worked on two psychiatric inpatient units of a university hospital, a questionnaire regardings expectatons about a nurse's involvement in decision making on a psychiatric unit was given to 17 registered nurses, 16 other staff members, 12 patients, and eight physcians who worked on the units. To measure how intrarole conflict was reflected in job satisfaction for registered nurses only the nurses responded to the Brayfield-Rothe instrument. Existence of intrarole conflict concerning amount of a nurse's involvement in decision making was proved when intrarole conflict was found between the nurse group and the physician group and the nurse group and the patient group. The nurse group had the highest total mean expectancy score for involvement in decision making while the patient group had the lowest. Significant differences existed in expectation scores between groups in the decisions about psychotherapy, physical care, ward milieu, and unit policy, but not about continuity of care intrarole conflict indicated by individual nurses expectations scores compared with the total expectancy score of the combined groups was not reflected in job satisfaction.