This study considered direct and indirect influences of the physical work environment on job satisfaction in a nationally representative sample of early-career registered nurses.
The purpose of this study is noted to examine indirect influences of the physical work environment on job satisfaction, in addition to previously examined direct influences, and test these direct and indirect influences in a nationally representative sample of early-career RNs.
The study sample came from the third wave of a longitudinal survey of nurses’ work trajectories. Registered nurses (RNs) who were licensed for the first time by exam between August 1, 2004 and July 31, 2005 in one of 51 randomly selected metropolitan areas and nine rural areas across 34 U.S. states and the District of Columbia were surveyed. The responses of 1,141 RNs were included for analysis. The dependent variable of job satisfaction and the independent variable of physical work environment were analyzed with other variables known to impact job satisfaction.
The physical work environment did not directly influence RN job satisfaction but did indirectly influence job satisfaction through work environment factors that include negative affectivity, variety, workgroup cohesion, nurse-physician relations, workload, organizational constraints, distributive justice, promotional opportunity, and job opportunities.
Survey participants were limited to early-career RNs who work in hospital settings. Caution should be used if results are used with nurses who are more experienced or who work in non-hospital settings. Lack of questions related to noise is another limitation. Finally, subscales from larger tools were used to create the survey for this study. The researchers note there is a possibility that subscale use may alter the measurement properties from other studies that use the full instrument.