Is Nurses' Job Satisfaction Related to Occupational Health and Safety Management?

Dear Editor-in-Chief

Job satisfaction is one of the most challenging organizational concepts and basis for most management policies for increasing organizational productivity and efficiency (1). In this regard, occupational health management can effect on Job satisfaction (2–4). The situation of occupational health & safety is not predictable (5, 6).

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the status of occupational health management and job satisfaction among rehabilitation nurses in Tehran provinces. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 140 nurses in 2017 as part of another study, with ethical code of IR.USWR.1396.359 (7).

Data were collected using the questionnaire composed of three parts of demographic information, occupational safety and health management assessment, and job satisfaction measurement (JDI). At first, face and content validity were evaluated by 10 experts. Content validity was confirmed using Lawshe’s content validity coefficient index.

The reliability of tool was examined using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (7). There was a significant relationship between the status of occupational health management in nurses of rehabilitation centers and their job satisfaction in Tehran. Additionally, standard regression coefficient between occupational health management and job satisfaction was obtained to be 0.473 (P<0.05). Thus, with 95% confidence, occupational health management in rehabilitation centers under the supervision of welfare organization has a significant impact on job satisfaction of their staffs. Most existing studies investigated job satisfaction among medical staffs, and health staffs have been neglected because of the significance of their tasks in field of prevention, care, and treatment. Overall, paying attention to the development of a safe environment and promoting health status in the workplace leads to a suitable climate in workplace, to increase employee motivation and ultimately, to provide job satisfaction. Occupational safety and health leads to improvement of performance and increasing job satisfaction among staffs (3).

There was a significant relationship between occupational safety and health status in hospital and job satisfaction among nurses (2). Findings by Azadeh et al., about occupational health management and human resource productivity, confirmed a positive relationship between occupational safety and health management and job satisfaction. The quality of the workplace has psychologically and physically a direct impact on improving work health, increasing staff motivation, and improving job satisfaction and patient care improvement (8). Therefore, planning and conducting some program to promote occupational health and safety is necessary (9, 10). According to the evaluation of research findings, job satisfaction, and occupational health management in the rehabilitation center in Tehran is in relatively optimal condition. In addition, research findings confirmed a positive significant relationship between occupational health management and job satisfaction among staffs working in rehabilitation centers, and implementation of occupational safety and health programs in rehabilitation centers can significantly influence job satisfaction of staffs.

Therefore, it is necessary to provide more job satisfaction to the personnel of these centers by planning and conducting necessary steps to improve and promote the level of occupational health and safety.