NURSE’S JOB SATISFACTION IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE HOSPITAL OF PROVINCE OF CONCEPCIÓN, CHILE

Abstract

This research is a descriptive, and correlational one. The main purpose was to establish the level of job satisfaction in the case of those nurses working at both public and private Hospital Centers in the Province of Concepción (Chile). Such research has stated that nurses who work at private medical centers have a higher level of job satisfaction than those at public centers. Besides, there is also a differential among nurses’ labor satisfaction level itself that has also been hypothetically claimed. The latter depends on what the program of nursing’s choice was - within a numbered selection list - when applying for it. A 248-nurses-sampling was chosen. The following tools for data collecting were used, the Index of Job Description of Smith et. al.; Bolda’s sub-scale; dealing with working conditions was also considered. The following were some of the most outstanding results: Hospital nurses show just a slight satisfaction regarding their jobs, while meaningful differences can be found between nurses working in the public and private area. With respect to the latter, nurses working in private hospital show a higher satisfaction. Physical working conditions stand out as a dissatisfaction factor in the case of hospital nurses, specially those working for the public area. Issues dealing with salaries and promotions are the ones that demonstrate greatest dissatisfaction both in private and public nurses. Interaction factors with their coworkers, supervisors, as well as with the activity they perform are the ones showing the highest satisfaction. Nurses’ labor satisfaction level was found to have no relation with what the position of their choice was by the time they applied for the nursing program at the university.