Objective
To document job satisfaction and sources of stress among nursing staff working in
nursing homes and to evaluate the extent to which the reasons of stress differ by
type of nursing staff.
Design
Cross-sectional study.
Setting
Twenty-five nursing homes in North Carolina participating in a demonstration project
of a new model of long-term care pharmacy.
Participants
Nurses and nursing assistants employed at the time of the survey in the spring and
summer of 2002 (n = 1283).
Measurements
Health Professional Stress Inventory modified for use in the nursing home setting
and ratings of job satisfaction.
Results
The situations most stressful for nurses were not having enough staff, having too
much work to do, interruptions, having non–health professionals determine how to do
their job, poor pay, and ultimately being responsible for patient outcomes. The top
most stressful situations for nursing assistants included poor pay, not enough staff,
and too much work to do. Nursing assistants were more likely than nurses to report
stress because they do not have adequate information regarding a patient’s condition.
Nurses were more likely than nursing assistants to report stress because non–health
professionals (eg, surveyors) determine how they must do their job.
Conclusions
The findings of this study support the need to improve recognition for nursing, improve
staffing, and provide competitive compensation in nursing homes.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: July 26, 2006
Footnotes
This study was supported in part by a Commonwealth Fund and a grant from the Retirement Research Foundation. C.M.H. is supported by a National Primary Care Career Scientist Award from the Research and Development Office of Northern Ireland. K.L.L. and C.M.H. contributed to the study concept, design, analysis, and preparation of the manuscript. The sponsor funded the study, but had no input into the design, methods, subject recruitment, data collection, analysis and preparation of the paper.
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© 2007 American Medical Directors Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
