Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press Publishes New Article Detailing Impact of Job Satisfaction on Nurses' Work Lives

Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press) has recently published a literature review article detailing the impact of job satisfaction on nurses' work lives on its online academic publishing platform QScience.com. Though the article, written by authors Aisha Hamad Al-Qahtani, Bridget Stirling, and Daniel Forgrave, was prepared before COVID-19 swept across the globe, the insights it provides are key when considering the current welfare of nurses on the frontline of this pandemic

“At HBKU Press, we are committed to publishing local and global research on QScience.com that highlights key issues in various fields of study,” explains Dr. Rima Isaifan, Head of Journals and Academic Publishing at HBKU Press. “The platform reaches a wide range of audiences, both local and global, which helps to develop and expand scholarship and research on an international level.”

“This specific article is particularly relevant as registered nurses around the world are essential workers in the fight against the virus. With the ever-increasing burden of care being placed on their shoulders, it is important for policy makers to understand what factors play into decisions for nurses to successfully commit to their jobs and to the overall care of society, as opposed to those factors that influence them to leave their jobs which leads to huge gaps in healthcare systems.”

The article, titled, The impact of job satisfaction on nurses’ work lives: A literature review, is published on QScience.com’s open journal, QScience Connect. Several databases were accessed to identify studies published after 2002 that measured nurses’ job satisfaction using the McCloskey/Mueller Job Satisfaction tool and to explore the relationship between job satisfaction and outcomes related to nurses’ work lives.

The top factors studied to determine job satisfaction included: commitment to the workplace, workplace environment, emotional status, career ladder, and accountability.

Of the five factors described, Amna Mahmoud, a resident in Qatar who currently works as a post-operation ICU nurse, feels that during the coronavirus pandemic nurses around the world are most influenced by their commitment to the workplace and their emotional status.

“Under normal circumstances, the various aspects studied in the literature review are all very relevant to the field of nursing, and they can even be loosely applied to other workplaces as well,” Mahmoud explains. “But now, with COVID-19 chipping away at the healthcare infrastructure around the world, you can definitely see how these two factors in particular play into job satisfaction.”

In the literature review, workplace commitment is described as the intention of a nurse to stay at their current place of work because they are well supported by management and administrators versus wanting to leave because of a lack of support. Emotional status is related to burnout and stress and having the proper support systems in place. Nurses often spend more time with patients than with other health workers which leads to an established relationship with patients and their families. This can result in becoming more emotionally involved and therefore affected by their outcomes.

“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, it’s been a roller coaster of fear, worry and anxiety,” explains Mahmoud.

“But I feel like I can wake up every day and do my job the best that I can because of the support I receive,” she explains. “And though a lot of the emotional support we receive is informal, it’s still there. Having someone to talk to, to share my fears with, and to listen to me when I’m down is a great relief during this challenging time. It helps me release my emotions and push forward for another day. It provides me with job satisfaction and an increased commitment to my work.”

Mahmoud’s sentiments reaffirm the conclusions of the literature review: when a nurse feels supported through policy and emotional support, their level of job satisfaction increases, which leads to a higher level of commitment to their job and increased ability to provide patient care.

For complete details and an analysis of all of the factors playing into nurses’ job satisfaction, you can read the article on QScience.com through the following link: https://www.qscience.com/content/journals/10.5339/connect.2020.1.