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Abstract
Background: The satisfaction of the nurses can be influenced by factors affecting the working environment and working environment.
Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the factors affecting nurses' work environment and the work environment itself on the satisfaction of nurses.
Methods: A total of 327 nurses were administered an introductory questionnaire, the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) and the Employee Satisfaction Scale (ESS) in our descriptive study.
Results: The mean PES-NWI score was 2.6±0.4 and the mean ESS score was 79.69. The highest mean score among the PES-NWI sub-dimensions was for staffing and resource adequacy (3.0±0.5) while the lowest mean score was for nursing foundations for quality of care (2.3±0.5). The ESS increased as the PES-NWI score increased (r =-.772, p=0.000).
Conclusions: We found that the attitudes of the nurses regarding the work environment and their vocational satisfaction were moderate and the age, educational level and work duration affected the attitude regarding the work environment.
Key words: Attitude, satisfaction, nursing, work environment
Introduction
Donald (1999) described a high-quality work environment for nurses as "a place where the needs and expectations of the nurses are met as an individual and also where the patients achieve their targets regarding their own health" (Donald 1999). The Institute of Medicine emphasized that the work environment was important for nursing care quality in their report named Ensuring Patient Safety in 2004: Transformation of the Nurses' Work Environment of Nurses (Institute of Medicine 2004). The International Community of Nurses again identified its 2006 theme as "Safe Environment-Safe Employment" while the 2007 theme focused on "Positive Implementation-Work Environment" (Bilazer et al 2008). The work environment of nurses consists of 6 elements, and is a complex issue that plays a major role in the burnout level of the nurse. These elements are listed as the employment level, working responsibility, management, relationships between colleagues, and vocational and professional incentives (International Council of Nurses 2006; Choi et al 2011).
The work environment is known to currently include uncertain, variable and complex conditions for nurses (Gaynor et al 2007). The development of modern health care, an aging population, the complexity of advanced medical science, and current health policies are thought to increase the responsibilities...