Quality of Work Life and Job Satisfaction of Nursing Managers

Quality of work life (QWL) refers to how staff think about their profession, to what extents they are satisfied, and how they consider their job comparable with their goals (1, 2). It is commonly believed that improvement of the QWL is vital for attracting and keeping the staff (3). Quality of work life for nurses is not an exception; however, low quality of their work life has been confirmed by many studies. A study in Bangladesh showed low QWL for 54% of nurses (4). Additionally, 74% of the nurses in the hospitals affiliated with Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran, were not satisfied with their job (5). As far as nursing is concerned, the main body of literature have focused on nurses not nursing managers. Thus, there is little information about nursing managers’ QWL. Therefore, we invited all top and middle nursing managers (71 matrons and supervisors) working in hospitals affiliated with Social Security Organization in Tehran, Iran to participate in a cross-sectional study (May to June 2012). We developed a valid (based on literature and expert review) and reliable (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.94) questionnaire comprised of 31 questions (in eight aspects of QWL) based on literature review (1-3, 5). The participants were asked to answer the questions based on a 5-point Likert scale (from very low =1 to very high = 5). The response rate was 70.4% (50 managers from 11 hospitals). Mean of age, work experience years, and management experience years of the participants were 41.7 ± 4.1, 17.6 ± 3.6, and 8.5 ± 4.3 years, respectively. Furthermore, 62% were female and 58% were older than 40 years old. As listed in Table 1, financial facilities were perceived at moderate level (score: 5 ±1.26 out of 10).