Measuring professional satisfaction and nursing workload among nursing staff at a Greek Coronary Care Unit

Objective: To explore potential associations between nursing workload and professional satisfaction among nursing personnel (NP) in Greek Coronary Care Units (CCUs). Method: A cross-sectional study was performed involving 66 members of the NP employed in 6 randomly selected Greek CCUs. Job satisfaction was assessed by the IWS and nursing workload by NAS, CNIS and TISS-28. Results: The response rate was 77.6%. The reliability of the IWS was alpha=0.78 and the mean score 10.7 (+/- 2.1, scale range: 0.5-39.7). The most highly valued component of satisfaction was Pay, followed by Task requirements, Interaction, Professional status, Organizational policies and Autonomy. NAS, CNIS and TISS-28 were negatively correlated (p <= 0.04) with the following work components: Autonomy, Professional status, Interaction and Task requirements. Night shift work independently predicted the score of IWS. Conclusion: The findings show low levels of job satisfaction, which are related with nursing workload and influenced by rotating shifts.