Evaluating the relationship between nurses’ occupational satisfaction and patients’ satisfaction with nursing service

The behavior of healthcare providers in a healthcare system constitutes a factor for patients' satisfaction with the system. Nurses' job satisfaction is an important part of their lives which influences patients' security, as well as the quality and efficiency of healthcare services. Nurses' dissatisfaction with their vocation, for any reason it might be, will have a direct impact on the quality of services provided for patients. The objective of this study is to determine the relationship between nurses' job satisfaction and patients' satisfaction with nursing service. Method: This is a descriptive-analytic study conducted on 200 patients at discharging and 100 nurses from different wards (other than special wards, Emergency, Pediatric and Psychiatric) from hospitals of Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2010. The data were processed using descriptive statistics and Chi-Square tests. Data were entered into the statistical package for the social sciences version 16 for windows. Results: The majority of nurses (62%) had low satisfaction with their job; 34% had average satisfaction and only 4% were highly satisfied. The findings strongly indicate that patients were perfectly satisfied in hospitals where nurses had higher job satisfaction. Similarly, patients tended to be more dissatisfied in hospitals with nurses with low job satisfaction. Conclusion: Considering the close relationship observed in our study between nurses' job satisfaction and patients' satisfaction, nursing managers must become aware of the factors influencing the job satisfaction of nurses and take steps to improve them in order to achieve higher levels of job satisfaction alongside high-quality nursing services.