Job satisfaction among hospice workers: what managers need to know

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception of job satisfaction among hospice interdisciplinary team members, which included social workers, nurses, spiritual care providers, and home health aides. Interdisciplinary team members (n = 72) from 4 hospice organizations in the Midwest participated in the study. Results of this study show that job satisfaction as defined by hospice workers includes having task significance, supervisory support, integration, distributive justice, positive affectivity, autonomy, routinization, no role overload, and high levels of work motivation. These same workers also stated that (1) working with patients and families and carrying out the hospice philosophy (task significance), (2) being comfortable with their level of knowledge and skills (competence), and (3) having good relationships with team members (integration) play a significant role in their degree of satisfaction on the job. These results have implications for managers in hospice organizations. Specifically, managers in health care organizations like hospices need to be apprised of what factors result in job satisfaction among employees.