Job Satisfaction and Psychological Well-being among Mental Health Nurses

Most studies on job satisfaction among nurses in Nigeria have focused on general nursing specialities, with relatively little attention paid to mental health nursing. There is a global shortage of mental health nurses; this shortage is further complicated by constant emigration of these nurses from developing countries to more affluent countries. A better understanding of factors contributing to job satisfaction and psychological well-being among mental health nurses may help improve their working conditions with resulting benefits for the quality of nursing care. The aimed at assessing the prevalence and correlates of job satisfaction and psychological well-being among mental health nurses. The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (short version) was used to assess job satisfaction among 110 psychiatric nurses in June 2013. A questionnaire was used to elicit socio-demographic variables, while psychological well-being was evaluated using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ- 12). Systematic random sampling technique was used to select the nurses. Mean age of respondents was 36.7 years, with age ranging from 20 to 54 years. There was a female preponderance among these nurses (67.3%). 5.5% reported low job satisfaction, 60% and 34.5% reported average and high level of job satisfaction respectively. Majority of these nurses reported positive psychological well-being (84.5%), while 15.5% had psychological distress. Job satisfaction had a positive significant relationship with psychological well-being (X2= 15.13, p =0.003). Job satisfaction was also significantly related to older age of respondents (X2=9.59, p=0.043). Majority of the respondents in this study reported that they were satisfied with their work. Many of them also reported positive psychological well-being. There was a significantly positive relationship between job satisfaction and psychological well-being. Continuous efforts should be made to examine other factors in the work environment that can impact positively on the psychological well-being and job satisfaction among mental health nurses.