Objective: Nurses are exposed to risk factors arising from the work environment and working conditions, which may constitute a threat to their and the patients’ health and safety. The risks encountered in the working environment may affect the nurses’ work satisfaction and their of quality of life. The aim of this study was to determine the level of work satisfaction of nurses working in a government hospital, their quality of life, and the characteristics and risks of their work environment, and to assess the correlation between them.
Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 474 nurses working in a university hospital between June 2001 and September 2018. A Nurse’s Description Form and Work Environment Risk Assessment Form, the Minnesota Work Satisfaction Questionnaire (MWSQ), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire Short Form (WHOQOL-8) were used. In the evaluation of data, descriptive statistics, the Mann-Whitney U test, the Kruskall-Wallis test, and the Spearman correlation analysis were used.
Results: The mean age of the nurses was 35.6±7.82 (min: 22; max: 59) years; 89% were female, and 69.2% were married. According to their reports, 27.2% of the nurses participating in the study worked in the internal medicine clinic, 62.9% worked on a shift system, 43.2% worked more than 45 hours a week, and 11% were in a management position. The nurses’ total mean score on the MWSQ was calculated as 62.49±12.35, and their total mean score on the WHOQOL-8 was 24.60±5.21. It was found that the MWSQ scores of nurses exposed to physical, ergonomic, psychosocial, and chemical risks were significantly low. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between their total mean scores on the WHOQOL-8 and their total MWSS scores and mean scores on the subscales of intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction (p<0.05).
Conclusion: It was seen that there was a correlation between the nurses’ work satisfaction and their quality of life, that the working year, working order, weekly working time, experiencing work-related accidents, experiencing violence from manager/colleague variables relating to their working life, all of which affected their work satisfaction and their quality of life, and that the physical, ergonomic, chemical, and psychosocial risks in the nurses’ work environments affected their work satisfaction as well.
Cite this article as: Düzgün F, Yılmaz D, Aydın Taş T, Sabahyıldızı Bor N, Zengi S. The Correlation between Work Satisfaction and Quality of Life in Nurses and Risks in the Work Environment: A University Hospital Example. Arc Health Sci Res 2020; 7(1): 50-9.