Impacting Canadian Public Health Nurses’ Job Satisfaction

Abstract

he public health sector is experiencing recruitment and retention issues similar to those in other areas of the Canadian health system; the current workforce is aging and replacing and retaining such expertise is challenging. 1-3 Job dissatisfaction has been linked to retention issues, absenteeism, increased costs, and ultimately diminished client outcomes. 4-6 As nurses constitute the largest professional group of national public health human resources, 1,3,7 it would be beneficial to gain a better understanding of the determinants of their job satisfaction. Given the direction of health system reform that necessitates moving clients quickly from acute care settings into the community, 8 some have predicted that 60% of the Canadian nursing workforce will work in the community sector by 2020. 9 This projected increase in demand will have to be addressed in the context of an estimated shortage of 60,000 registered nurses by 2022; 10 this constitutes over 25% of the current Canadian nursing workforce. 11 No data currently exist identifying the future demands for public health nurses (PHNs), a specialized subsector of community nurses, however Canadian public health realities-including an aging population, higher prevalence of chronic conditions, and threats from infectious disease-suggest that there will be a need to increase or, at minimum, maintain the current PHN workforce. Due to the use of varying nomenclature and the diversity of roles and responsibilities across the country, enumeration of Canadian PHNs is difficult. 12 In their day-today work, PHNs identify and act on the sociopolitical conditions that contribute to Canadian population health inequities and are in a position to provide valuable insight to inform policy decisions. 12,13 Recent research has identified that effective Canadian health human resource planning requires service delivery strategies ensuring that PHNs are used to their full potential. 14 Positive work environments and job satisfaction would facilitate this objective. This secondary analysis of data selected from the 2005 National Survey of the Work and Health of Nurses (NSWHN) was undertaken to determine the relationships between Canadian PHNs' job satisfaction and their autonomy, control-over-practice, and workload. Previous research has demonstrated the applicability of these

Public Health Nurses in Israel: A Case Study on a Quality Improvement Project of Nurse's Work Life

“…This case study confirms one of the major conclusions of the published literature, namely the sources of job satisfaction (Baldwin et al., ; Curtis & Glacken, ; Graham et al., ; Haugh & Laschinger, ; Keller et al., ). It is clear that job satisfaction is an outgrowth of an organizational structure which concentrates on three key issues—the communications between the ranks of the hierarchy `which the organizational structure encourages/discourages, the physical working environment it provides, and the resources it furnishes workers to meet the demands laid on them.…”

“…Best and Thurston's () sample also singled out autonomy and wages as factors in job satisfaction, together with direct contact with clients. Similar findings on professional status, autonomy and workload variables as predictors of job satisfaction were reported in later studies (Curtis & Glacken, ; Graham et al., ).…”

“…The present authors found in the literature for the last 20 years numerous papers on public health nurses' job satisfaction and quality of work life from Canada, the USA, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and Japan, but none from Europe or Israel. The predominant finding of all these papers was the very close relation between job satisfaction and the variables of organizational structure (Almalki, FitzGerald, & Clark, 2012;Baldwin, Lyons, & Issel, 2011;Best & Thurston, 2006;Campbell, Foweles, & Weber, 2004;Cumbey & Alexander, 1998;Curtis & Glacken, 2014;Graham, Davies, Woodend, Simpson, & Mantha, 2011;Haugh & Laschinger, 1998;Keller, Strohschein, Lia-Hoagberg, & Schaffer, 1998;McMaster University School of Nursing and the Health Services Research Unit, 2009;Yamashita, Takase, Wakabayshi, Kuroda, & Owatari, 2009). The 21st-century studies have reported relatively low levels job satisfaction among public health nurses and emphasize the need for additional research on job satisfaction among public health workforce (Curtis & Glacken, 2014;Graham et al, 2011;Hilliard & Boulton, 2012;Sellers et al, 2015).…”

Burnout in Relation to Specific Contributing Factors and Health Outcomes among Nurses: A Systematic Review

“…Although a number of articles identified in this review have confirmed significant relationships between work related stressors and burnout [25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,59,60,77,78], job satisfaction [11,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,81] as well as general health, these relationships are predominantly two way relationships with only a handful of studies confirming three way relationships [64,65,71,84]. Among the studies confirming two way relationships, only one study confirming the relationship between job satisfaction and general health [85] was identified.…”

“…Work related stressors including pay, task requirements, well maintained up to date resources [36,37,38], physical work environment [39], autonomy [40,41,42], peer relationships, cohesion, feedback [40,41,43], workload, control over practice [44,45] patient outcomes and supervisor support [36,41] recognition, independence, responsibility, authority [46], meaningfulness of work, nurse centered communication involving humor and clarity [47], role stress [48] as well as overtime [38,41] were related to job satisfaction. It has also been found that the interaction between workload and autonomy best predicts job satisfaction [44]. A common conclusion was that work related stress is significantly related to job satisfaction [49,50] and nurses who experience higher stress levels are less satisfied with their jobs [51].…”