Relationship between Shift Work and Job Satisfaction among Nurses: a Cross-sectional Study

Background and Objectives: Shift working has the potential to negatively influence the quality of work life among nurses. The purpose of this study was to investigate the outbreak of shift work-related disorders and the relationship between shift work and job satisfaction in nurses of Ilam University’s subsidiary hospitals, in order to identify potential strategies for decreasing risk of health problems among nurses.   Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 84 shift working nurses at three hospitals were randomly selected. The Survey of Shift worker (SOS) questionnaire was used as the major study tool. The nurses’ demographic and work condition data were collected using a research-made questionnaire. T-test was used for inferential analysis of the data.   Findings: Psychological disorder (96.4%) was found to be the most prevalent shift work-related problem followed by social life (84.5%) and digestive problems (81%), respectively. Nurses who had chosen shift work voluntarily showed significantly higher job satisfaction as compared with nurses who were forced to work on shift (P < 0.05).   Conclusions: Our study recommends that shift work is assigned preliminarily to the nurses who voluntarily choose to work on shift, in order to reduce the associated disorders and increase nurses’ job satisfaction.