Relationships between Personality Factors and Job Satisfaction and Importance for Operating Room and Surgical Unit Staff Nurses
This comparative study was designed to explore relationships between personality factors and the satisfaction and importance of selected job factors for staff nurses employed in the operating room and on surgical units. The forty-six subjects were female, registered nurses who were employed full-time either in the operating room or on the surgical units of a 516-bed medical center. The conceptual basis for the study was found in the motivational theories of Maslow, Herzberg, and Argyris, which ail point to the higher level of satisfaction experienced by individuals who have the opportunity to fulfill their needs for personal growth. The literature was reviewed in terms of need satisfaction, general job satisfaction and personality studies of nurses, and studies of the relationships between job satisfaction and personality. The only study exploring relationships between job satisfaction and personality for nurses which was found was a pilot study to determine the effects on job satisfaction of matched nurse personality and perceived position climate. Of the forty-six subjects responding to the questionnaires used in the current study, twenty-three were operating room staff nurses and twenty-three were surgical unit staff nurses. Each subject responded to three questionnaires. A biographic data sheet contained selected items regarding social and employment history. The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (Form C) was used to assess personality factors, and the Porter Need Satisfaction Index was used to determine satisfaction and importance of job factors. The significance of differences between the two groups was determined using the t-test. Within the groups, relationships between personality factors and satisfaction and importance of job factors were determined by means of linear correlation. The level of significance was set at p = .05. The general conclusions drawn from the study were as follows: Importance of job factors was not significantly different for the two groups of nurses. Surgical unit staff nurses were slightly more satisfied with reference to the selected job factors than were operating room staff nurses. Personality patterns of nurses in both groups basically followed the norms for the general adult female population, with significant differences between the two groups of nurses occurring for only three of the sixteen measured factors. For operating room staff nurses stronger relationships were found between personality factors and satisfaction with job factors, while for surgical unit staff nurses stronger relationships existed between personality factors and the importance of job factors.
Perioperative, Operating Room and Surgical Nursing, Personality; Surgical Nursing; Job Satisfaction
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