Job satisfaction of nurses in a Saudi Arabian university teaching hospital: a cross-sectional study

Saudi Arabia is developing very fast in all disciplines, especially in nursing and health. Only about five studies between 1990 and 2010 have been undertaken in Saudi Arabia concerning factors influencing job satisfaction of nurses, although a body of knowledge exists globally.

The purpose of this research was to measure nurses' job satisfaction in Saudi Arabia in a university teaching hospital and to determine the influencing factors.

A quantitative, cross sectional method, self-administered questionnaire was used for this study. A systematic sample of N=189 nurses was used to collect data. The SPSS version 16.0. was used to analyze the data. An independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance were used to test hypotheses concerning different groups, and correlation tests (the Pearson's and Spearman's rank tests) were used to examine relationships between variables.

Overall, nurses were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with their jobs. However, nurses indicated satisfaction with supervision, co-workers and nature of work. The sources of dissatisfaction were with subscales such as pay, fringe benefits, contingent rewards and operating conditions.

These findings indicate that there is a need to increase nurses' salaries and bonuses for extra duties. More training programmes and further education also should be encouraged for all nurses. Therefore, it is imperative that nursing managers and policy makers in Saudi Arabia consider these findings to improve nurses' job satisfaction.