Job Satisfaction of Public Hospital Nurse in Hong Kong

Job Satisfaction of Public Hospital Nurse in Hong Kong

Job Satisfaction can be defined as the employees' feelings and a collection of attitudes that towards their job. The employee tendency to be satisfied or less satisfied was influence by typical factors: the nature of the work, supervision, present pay, promotion opportunities and relations with co-workers; and these factors are very important. The Job Descriptive Index (JDI) and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) are widely used for measure job satisfaction. Employee' job satisfaction can be determined by the theory of Discrepancy, Equity (Fairness), Disposition and Emotion.

Now, Hong Kong hospitals are facing the problems of nursing shortage and high turnover of nurse. Peoples are great concern about the impact for the quality of healthcare system that threatened the safety of patient. Refer to the report of nursing manpower resources of Hospital Authority survey 2011, the job satisfaction of nurses was scored to 3 on a scale of 10. The score reflected that most of the nurse was less satisfied on their job. According to the typical factors of JDI and the theory of Discrepancy, Equity (Fairness) and Emotion, we can investigate more about the job satisfaction of nurse.

Discrepancy theory: Most of the nurses feel that their salary and workload are not proportional. The survey showed that most of the nurses were suffered a heavy workload; the current patient-to-nurse ratio during the morning shift reached 12-14:1, on the afternoon shift 14-16:1 and overnight shift 22-24:1, the nurse' rotation of overnight shifts has increased from once a week to once every five days, and also the utilization rate of hospital beds has been maintained at between 100 to 110 percent. Refer to the theory, there a discrepancy between the job outcomes wanted and the outcomes that nurse perceived to be obtained.

Equity theory: Some of the contractual basis nurse with 3-4 years experience said that their salary is same as the new recruits nurse. They feel that this is unfair, as they need to handle more work than the new colleague but got the same pay. According to the Equity theory, a comparison of the inputs that one invests in a job and the outcomes one receives in comparison with the inputs and outcomes of another person. In the other hand, the nurses complained that when there is a medical mistake, the management always blames on individuals for carelessness, but they never consider there is lack of support or resources for them. Refer to the procedural fairness, the process used