Nurses' attitudes and satisfaction in two psychogeriatric wards: their structure and correlates

This study investigated the structure and correlates of previously published job satisfaction and attitude measures for nurses through an analysis of responses from staff working in two psychogeriatric wards. A number of inter-correlations were found between the attitude and satisfaction scales. Factor analysis revealed that one of the attitude scales was multi-dimensional and it is suggested that future research should not assume the uni-dimensionality of attitude and satisfaction constructs. It is concluded that psychometric research has important limitations, that a multiplicity of research strategies (both quantitative and qualitative) should be employed in future investigations and that more importance should be accorded to the organizational context of job satisfaction.