Job Satisfaction and Career Intention of Australian General Practice Nurses: A Cross‐Sectional Survey

Abstract

Purpose: The nursing workforce in Australian general practice has increased exponentially in size over recent years to meet the growing demand for health care. Nurses are more likely to remain working if they are satisfied with their jobs. Satisfaction is impacted by a complex range of factors, including the environment, workplace relationships, and the nurses' role. Therefore, satisfaction data cannot be generalized across disparate clinical settings. This study sought to investigate the job satisfaction and turnover intentions of nurses working in Australian general practice. Design and Methods: A cross-sectional online survey of nurses employed in general practices across Australia was conducted using convenience and snowball sampling techniques. The survey tool contained a 29-item job satisfaction scale and 8 items around turnover intention. Findings: 786 responses were included in the analysis. Respondents were most satisfied with the work nature aspects of their job and least satisfied with the pay items. While most participants intended to stay in nursing (86%) and general practice (77%) employment, a substantial group were undecided about their future (16%). Those who were dissatisfied with their job or neutral in their satisfaction were more likely to be intending to leave than those who were satisfied with their job. Conclusions: This is the first study of job satisfaction and turnover intention reported about nurses working in Australian general practice. It has highlighted that a substantial proportion of the workforce is undecided about their future. Therefore, strategies need to be developed to address the issues raised around job satisfaction to reduce the potential loss of these skilled nurses. Clinical Relevance: Those intending to leave general practice nursing are more likely to be dissatisfied in their jobs. Understanding the factors that impact job satisfaction is important to inform strategies that will facilitate retention of nurses in general practice employment.

Intent to Stay in Nursing Profession and Associated Factors Among Nurses Working in Public Hospitals of Harari Regional State and Dire Dawa Administration, Eastern Ethiopia

“…This nding is inline and also supported by study conducted at Amhara region and Jimma zone, Ethiopia, which found that nurses who were satis ed in autonomy, professional opportunity, relationship and interaction, support, scheduling, payment and others bene ts were the potential associated factors which had a direct impact on intent to stay (9,10,20). It was also consistent with many other similar studies in that job satisfaction had frequently been reported as the most common predictors of nurses who decided intent to stay (15,(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26). These could indicate that nurses who had opportunities for professional development and got relatively better payment and bene t receive which is proportional to the amount of task they perform; good relation with staff, good supporting then the nurses' level of intent to stay in nursing profession will increase and also it is a vital factor.…”

Job satisfaction among Saudi healthcare workers and its impact on the quality of health services

“…[ 1 ] Job satisfaction could be defined as the degree to which the employees became satisfied or not with their jobs,[ 2 ] and it could reflect the employees' positive emotion toward their work. [ 3 ] Additionally, the employees' job satisfaction had a major role in raising employees' enthusiasm, which had a positive impact on the quality of the provided work; consequently, leading to health organizations' success. [ 4 ]…”

Exploring job satisfaction and turnover intentions among general practice nurses in an Australian Primary Health Network

“…This means that nurses work in smaller nursing teams, need to access professional development through external providers and are practising in a model that privileges financial considerations as well as best practice. Halcomb and Bird (2020) identified that this organizational environment is not always favourable to the professional practice of nurses.…”

“…Attracting nurses to work in general practice and encouraging them to stay in the primary health care sector demand an understanding of factors relating to job satisfaction and also future turnover intentions. While there has been much attention in the nursing literature to job satisfaction in acute care (Al Zamel et al, 2020;Lu et al, 2019), the significant differences in roles, organizational factors and employment conditions limit the direct transferability of this research to community settings such as general practice (Halcomb & Bird, 2020;Huang et al, 2019).…”