Perceptions of job satisfaction among Maltese radiographers at St. Luke's Hospital.

Abstract

Job satisfaction is a topic of wide interest since it is associated with many important behaviours and outcomes for employees that have implications for organisational and personal well-being. It is susceptible to change over a time span since it depends on a lot of variables: observations that motivated the researcher to actually assess job satisfaction amongst Maltese diagnostic radiographers in view of the various reforms and current changes in the health service. To this end, a cross-sectional study involving the radiographers working at St Luke's Hospital was carried out. The research tool consisted of a pre-existing scale (the job descriptive index and the job in general), which was extensively used in other similar studies. The study demonstrated that the most important perception of job satisfaction amongst these health workers was the high quality patient care delivered particularly through the production of high-quality diagnostic images. In fact, positive findings of this research indicate that radiographers are generally satisfied with their job. However, hygiene factors such as supervision, salary, work­environment and inter-personal relationships with colleagues mar this good state of affairs. Moreover, lack of respect to the profession, lack of managerial support and infrequent promotions were the motivator factors high-lighted in this study. Finally, no significant linear relation emerged between job satisfaction and demographic data relating to radiographers' age, gender and education. On the basis of this study, the researcher put forward a set of recommendations to the Society of Maltese Radiographers and to all its members to put measures into effect for the purposes of identifying elements or aspects of job dissatisfaction. One such measure includes regular job satisfaction surveys, as this would eventually translate itself into improved standards and cost effective patient care, which is public funded in Malta.