The perceptions of professional values and job satisfaction levels of nursing managers in Antalya

This study investigated the perceptions of professional values and job satisfaction levels of nursing managers in Antalya. The study was conducted with 216 nursing managers from nine hospitals in Antalya that consented to participate and who didn?t take annual leave or sick leave while the researcher was collecting the data. The data collection tools were a Personal Information Form, Nursing Professional Values Scale (NPVS) and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire. The data were evaluated with SPSS 18.0. The data analysis was conducted with frequency and percentage distribution, aritmetic mean, variance analysis (ANOVA), t test, Kruskall-Wallis analysis, Tukey test and Mann-Whitnet test, Pearson correlation analysis and Cronbach?s alpha. The analysis of the results were predicated on the basis of a significance level of 0.05. The mean score was found to be 147.9 (SD=18.8) for the Professional Values Scale. The mean scores of the scale were compared with nurses? age, sex, marital status, educational status, status of having a child, work place, administrative position, work style, total years in profession, total years in profession as a managing nurse, total years as a managing nurse in the hospital, career choice factors, membership to professional societies, and intention to quit the instution or nursing within a year. It was reported that there was a statistically meaningful difference between groups only in relation to educational status. The average scores for job satisfaction were 3.63 (SD=0.64) for overall satisfaction, 3.77 (SD=0.65) for internal satisfaction and 3.42 (SD=0.73) for external satisfaction. It was further noted that job satisfaction levels were higher among nurses if they were under 30 years old, married, with a nursing high school education, with a professional and administrative experience less than 11 years, serving in a private hospital, holding a manager/coordinator/supervisor position at work, working at day shift steadily, with a conscious career choice, with no intention to quit the institution or nursing within a year whatsoever, with a membership to professional societies. The results also indicated a positive and moderate correlation between nursing managers? perception of professional values and job satisfaction levels. Consequently, the study results suggested that nurses appreciated the significance of professional values. It was also pointed out that nurses had a job satisfaction at a moderate level and the levels of job satisfaction varied in relation with certain demographic and professional characteristics. Furthermore, the researchers concluded that that nursing managers had higher levels of perception of professional values would certainly result in higher levels of job satisfaction.