Job satisfaction of nurses working night duties as relievers

Abstract

This descriptive, exploratory study was carried out in a local general hospital. The target group was night nurses who form the night relieving pool. Locally they are referred to as night relievers. The aims were to explore their job satisfaction both on a global scale and with diverse job facets and to understand the unique challenges that this group of nurses may have to face being temporary staff. It also sought to identify changes, which night relievers would like to be implemented in order to increase their job satisfaction. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. All night relievers (n = 30) were included in the main study. Twenty nine questionnaires were returned rendering a response rate of 96.6%. The findings indicate that night relievers are generally satisfied with their job and would recommend nursing as a career to others. They derive satisfaction from providing optimal nursing care and enjoy a good working relationship with permanent staff. On the other hand, they are dissatisfied with lack of support from management and at times, they feel that they are not valued. They are also dissatisfied with the inflexibility of working hours especially the commencing and ending time of their shift. Even though comparable results emerged in previous studies on Maltese nurses, as it was expected issues that pertain solely to night relievers emerged in this study. Role ambiguity is the major dissatisfier followed closely by lack of continuity of care. Implications for management reflect suggestions made by participants mainly to be pooled to always cover the same clinical areas, remuneration for the times they are asked to take over the management of a ward, and a more understanding of family-work issues. Further qualitative research including interviews, comparative studies between night relievers and night nurses who are assigned to wards, and international studies are recommended in order to gain a deeper understanding of this particular group of nurses.