A study examining job satisfaction and empowerment in Glasgow’s coronary care nurses

Background
Coronary care nurses have an important role to play within the NHS. They are highly trained and operate in an advanced role. Due to budget cuts, a decreased intake for undergraduate nursing programs and an increase in demand for NHS services; the retention of nursing staff is a priority for the NHS. The workplace environment can have an effect on the retention of nurses. Job satisfaction and empowerment have been linked to positive outcomes such as reduced stress and burnout (Rafferty et al, 2007) as well as decreases in turnover, increased patient safety and organisational commitment (Armstrong et al, 2009).

Aims
To measure levels of job satisfaction and empowerment in nurses working in Coronary Care Units and to examine the relationship between empowerment and job satisfaction.

Methods
A cross-sectional descriptive correlational design was used to describe and examine the relationship between job satisfaction and empowerment in 103 nurses working in four Coronary Care Units across Glasgow.

Results
78 nurses responded to the questionnaire giving a response rate of 75.7%. A power calculation was performed which showed that a sample size of 78 had an 80% chance to detect a correlation of 0.3 at the 0.05 level. The results showed that both job satisfaction and perceived empowerment levels were low. The least satisfying job components were autonomy, interaction with colleagues and professional status. The least empowering structures were access to information, access to resources and their role within the organisation. A positive correlation was discovered between job satisfaction and empowerment (r=0.512, P<0.01).

Conclusions
Coronary care nurses are dissatisfied and are not empowered in their jobs. Nursing managers should design and implement initiatives to create satisfying and empowering work environments to retain nursing staff and improve patient care.