Development and Testing of an Acute Care Nurses' Job Satisfaction Scale.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Factors affecting nurses' job satisfaction in the acute care setting may differ from nurses working in other settings. The aim of this study was to develop a new tool that measure the job satisfaction of acute care nurses who provide direct patient care.

METHODS

Content validity then exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were used for validation of the new tool using a random sample of 349 acute care nurses.

RESULTS

The EFA resulted in 31 items suggesting 6 factors were present in the instrument. The identified factors were: achievement/job interest/responsibility, hospital policy, quality of supervision, peer support/work condition, growth/advancement, and benefits/job security.

CONCLUSION

A new tool for measuring acute care nurses' job satisfaction was developed based on a robust theoretical foundation and demonstrated sound psychometric properties.