Job satisfaction of staff registered nurses in primary and team nursing delivery systems.

Job satisfaction for nurses in team and primary nursing delivery systems as measured by a human needs questionnaire was studied. Staff-level registered nurses from 27 units in a large research hospital completed a 22-item questionnaire. Each item measured present and desired job satisfaction and the importance of the item to the respondent. Data from 115 primary-system nurses and 65 team-system nurses were analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis tests of significance and chi-square contingency tables. Overall, primary-system nurses reported greater job satisfaction than team-system nurses. The primary system offered more opportunity for accountability and fulfilling higher level needs. Neither system provided sufficient opportunities for self fulfillment, decision-making, or independent judgment. The identified weakness of the primary system was the unmet need for supervision. Of all the nurses in this study, 75% were dissatisfied with the prestige accorded to them.