The relationship between emotional labor and job satisfaction on nurses

Aim: This study was aimed to investigate the relationship between emotional labor strategies and job satisfaction in nursing. Method: This research was planned as an analytic cross-sectional study. The universe of this study consist of 1019 nurses working in a university hospital and three government hospital. The sample is determined as 281 via Epi Info software and stratified sampling method applied. The data was collected in between April-July 2016. The data were collected with "Individual and Occupational Qualities of Nurses Form", "Emotional Labor Scale" and "Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire". Descriptive statistics (frequency/percentage, arithmetic mean) and Pearson correlation were used in data evaluation. Results: It was found that the mean age of nurses were 34,46±7,9 and 53,4% of nurses are over 35 years and old. The sample was 90% women, 72,2% were married, 59,8% had bachelor's degree and above, 87,2% were service nurses. The type of emotional labor strategies most frequently exhibited by nurses was determined as acting (17,70±4,50) and suppressing (16,79±3,46). Job satisfaction of nurses was determined as higher than medium level. When the relationship between emotional labour strategies and job satisfaction of nurses is evaluated, it was found that there was a significant difference between deep acting and intrinsic, extrinsic, general job satisfaction. Conclusion: It was found that negative correlation existed between deep acting and job satisfaction in nursing. There was no relationship between the other dimensions of both scales.