Nurses’ work satisfaction and engagement
One key factor in ensuring the success of ever-changing health care organisations is the work satisfaction of personnel, which can also be assessed as engagement. Work satisfaction precedes engagement.
According to research, engagement is related to patient care outcomes, patient safety and experience, and personnel’s work satisfaction, retainment, well-being, absenteeism and productivity.
Data collection
The Modified Nurse Engagement Survey (mNES) is conducted annually. The survey consists of 53 items which are evaluated on a 6-point Likert scale (6=totally agree – 1= totally disagree). The statements form eight work-related drivers of engagement, and a component of personal engagement. The work-related drivers are Fundamentals of quality nursing care, Leadership access and responsiveness, Autonomy, Interprofessional collaboration, RN-to-RN collaboration, Professional development, Adequacy of resources and staffing, and Other factors related to engagement (in all, 49 statements). In addition, the respondents’ level of engagement is measured through four statements based on which their level of engagement is classified into four categories: “engaged”, “content”, “ambivalent”, and “disengaged”.
Additionally, the following aspects are collected as respondents’ background information: unit type, job title, type of employment, length of employment, highest education, and main working hours. National benchmarking results are compiled by Helsinki University Hospital.
Results
For national benchmarking, the responses of assistant nurse managers, nurses, midwives, paramedics, radiotherapists (not diagnostics), nurse managers, nurse directors, clinical nurse specialists and clinical nurse educators, other nursing experts as well as nursing staff who have completed secondary level qualifications are included.
Here the following results are presented from the last five years: national mean values of drivers of work satisfaction, and national portions (percentages) of the level of engagement (engaged, content, ambivalent, and disengaged)
