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An annual survey reveals nurses are generally happy at work, but there areas in need of attention (1126 hits)

Nurses Mostly Satisfied

According to a release from Jackson Health, the study was conducted online from September through October 2013. Invitations for the survey were emailed to 59,336 RNs, which included those who have been placed by Jackson Healthcare staffing companies and those who have not. From this, 1,333 hospital-based RNs participated in the survey.

Survey respondents were self-selected and represented each specialty and region of the U.S.

To read the details of the study, find a link to download the full report on the Jackson Health website.

Mostly Satisfied

The report indicates that while clearly nurses have a few things to complain about, the majority claim to be satisfied. Most of the responding nurses (64%) selected from the survey that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs. So that leaves about a third (36%) who chose dissatisfied or very dissatisfied.

Despite some dissatisfaction, most of the nurse responders will stay put for the next several years. Career goals for the next three to five years are to "keep doing what I'm doing" for 36% of the nurses. And this includes going back to school. Although the report did not provide demographic information in regard to the academic level of the respondents, it did report that 41% have no educational goals for the near future.

Barriers to the Bedside

A focus of the report was the factors keeping nurses from the bedside. Time wasted on activities that could be performed by other hospital personnel was cited by 67%, although what those activities are was not revealed.

Staffing was another factor eating at nurses' time with 66% saying limited coverage resulted in nurses having to divide their time between more patients. However, in this survey, patient ratios don't look so bad and are relatively evenly spread out, ranging from 1:1 care (6%) to 1:2 (18%). The highest ratio was 1:6 (13%).

Other factors that take time away from the bedside are lack of communication - among nurses, nursing assistants or techs, doctors, ancillary personnel and/or hospital administrators - at 48%; documentation at 43%; and fatigue from overwork or long shifts at 42%.

Considering that documentation ranks high on the complaint list it's interesting that most nurses rate the efficiency of their EMR systems as "somewhat efficient" (46%), compared to not very efficient (18%) and not efficient at all (10%).

The high number of nurses saying they were fatigued from overwork is confirmed by the number working overtime: 30% weekly; 22% monthly; 11% every other month. Only 17% said they never work OT. Tired or not, there was no indication from the survey whether the OT was mandatory or voluntary.

Bullying

As it has been reported through the years, nurses are still eating their young - and their old and their subordinates and their co-workers. Of the respondents, 30% said they feel bullied at work by senior management (13%); fellow nurses (11%); and even by nursing administration and leaders (5%); as well as physicians (5%). Interesting is that nurses seem to value camaraderie with 47% saying "effective teamwork with other disciplines and practitioners" is important to them. In fact, it's the second most important attribute of a nursing job - only pay beat it (51%).

The other elements nurses look for at work are:

Work-life balance (43%);
A friendly atmosphere (39%);
Flexibility (27%);
Having a say in decision-making (23%); and
Having more control over their schedules (22%).
Patient Satisfaction

The one element most nurses (74%) could agree on is that they are feeling pressured to positively influence patient satisfaction questionnaires. The report noted that nurses who believe they are being pushed to guide patients' responses are more likely to have negative views of their workplaces.

Change also seemed to be an influential element as 75% of those reported to be dissatisfied believe the profession has changed for the worse. Yet, 58% said the Affordable Care Act has not changed nursing. And one questions how much they are noticing change as 63% of respondents have no idea whether their hospitals are part of Accountable Care Organizations.

There are no surprises from the survey and the report noted there were no significant changes from last year's assessment. But still, it indicates nurses need to work on several areas to help nurses be satisfied on the job. It's likely an important impact on those patient satisfaction scores is nurse satisfaction.

Linda Jones is on staff at ADVANCE. Contact: ljones@advanceweb.com

http://nursing.advanceweb.com/Features/Art...







Posted By: Jeni Fa
Thursday, August 28th 2014 at 8:05PM
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