Job satisfaction and associated factors among psychiatric nurses in tertiary psychiatric hospitals: Results from a nationwide cross-sectional study

Aims: To investigate the job satisfaction among psychiatric nurses in China and to explore its associated factors.

Design: A cross-sectional survey among a nationwide sample from 32 tertiary psychiatric hospitals in 29 provincial capitals in China.

Methods: Nurses (N = 9.907) were targeted for this survey in December 2017. In all, 8,493 responded (response rate = 85.7%) and 7,881 (79.5%) were included in the analysis. An online questionnaire was used to collect demographics and factors related to the work environment. The short version of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire was used to assess job satisfaction. Multilevel regression was used to examine the association between job satisfaction and these factors.

Results: The mean job satisfaction score was 73.7. The multiple regression analysis indicated that self-rated health, monthly income, medical liability insurance coverage, perceived respect from patients, social recognition, nurse-physician collaboration, and trust were significantly associated with higher job satisfaction scores, while age, work hours, and directly experiencing patient-initiated violence were negatively associated with job satisfaction (p < .05).

Conclusion: Overall, Chinese psychiatric nurses are closer to satisfied than neutral and some demographics and factors related to stressful work environments were associated with nurses' job satisfaction scores.

Impact: This study examined factors associated with the job satisfaction of Chinese psychiatric nurses in a nationwide sample and indicated that to improve nurses' job satisfaction, the government and hospital administrators could consider ways to promote nurses' personal health and to modify the stressful work environments, such as improving income, reducing work hours, promoting the psychiatric nursing specialty in ways that increase the public's respect for it, increasing awareness of medical liability insurance coverage, and protecting nurses from patients' violence.