The relationship between the hospital clinical ladder program and job satisfaction among registered nurses working in staff nurse positions in the hospital setting

Abstract

Job satisfaction among registered nurses in the hospital se·tting has become a major concern among nurse administrators and the nursing profession. The hospital clinical ladder program for staff nurses at the bedside is.proposed as one means to. recruit and retain quality registered nurses. The concept of increased job satisfaction and professional recognition assists in the delivery of high quality patient care. The purpose of this study examined the relationship between the hospital clinical ladder program and job satisfaction among r.egistered nurses. It was proposed that RN's involved in the clinical ladder experience would report greater job satisfaction than their· counterparts in traditional staff nurse positions. Data were collected from two community hospitals in the southeastern United States; one utilizing .a clinical ladder structure and the other incorporating traditional staff nurse positions.. Questionnaires were received from 104 full-time registered nurses employed in either of the two hospitals. Data were collected from (a) Demographic Data questionnaire developed for this study; (b) the Job Descriptive Index (Smith, Kendall, and Hulin, 1969); and (c) the Jab-in-General Scale developed by Smith and Ironson (1982). Descriptive and inferential statistics were titilized to analyze the study datae A statistically significant (p <.05) relationship was found between pay and job satisfaction. In this study, tpe hospital clinical ladder program did not seem to affect job satisfaction levels. However, when the analysis of covariance was adjusted for pay, statistical significance (p <.05) was found for promotion opportunities at the ·hospital with the clinical ladder program. Based on the findings of this study, administrators should be aware of the influence salary has in job satisfaction. In addition, the hospital ladder when present was found to offer better promotion opportunities for registered nurses.