The Psychological Reward Satisfaction Scale: developing and psychometric testing two refined subscales for nurses

This paper is a report of the development and psychometric testing of two refined subscales of the Psychological Reward Satisfaction Scale.

Besides financial and material rewards, nurses also value psychological rewards: supportive and positively evaluated outcomes of the relationship an employee develops with the supervisor. Satisfaction with these rewards influences employees' attitudes. Recently, the Psychological Reward Satisfaction Scale was developed to measure an employee's satisfaction with psychological rewards. However, this instrument needs refinement before it can be used with a nursing sample.

We conducted a pilot study to test the reliability of the refined subscales. Forty nurses completed an online survey twice, with a time interval of 2 weeks. Afterwards, we gathered survey data with a larger sample of 337 nurses to examine the two subscales and their influence on turnover intention and the turnover antecedents job satisfaction and organizational commitment (measured by validated scales) in more detail. Data collection took place in Belgium in 2006.

The two refined subscales each contained four items. A series of hierarchical regression analyses suggested that satisfaction with psychological rewards from the head nurse has a statistically significant influence on nurses' turnover intention, job satisfaction and affective commitment, whereas pay satisfaction has not. Satisfaction with psychological rewards from the physicians only explained nurses' affective commitment.

When trying to motivate nurses through rewarding them, hospital managers should not only concentrate on financial rewards, but also pay attention to psychological rewards.