February 16, 2011

Study: Nursing home nurses top job-dissatisfaction list

Even as demand is growing for nurses in all segments of healthcare, 27% of nursing home nurses and 24% of hospital nurses reported being dissatisfied with their jobs, a newly released study found. Just 13% of nurses in other healthcare environments reported such feelings of dissatisfaction.

Researchers at the Penn School of Nursing surveyed more than 95,000 nurses in 614 U.S. hospitals and other healthcare settings. They found that nurses who provide direct care to patients experience higher rates of burnout than nurses in other healthcare sectors. They cited previous studies showing burnout is due partly to staffing levels and emotionally depleting work. Nursing home nurses (37%) had the highest rate of burnout, according to the investigators. Such discontent is likely to hurt the stability of nursing workforces in the future, one expert noted.

Additional findings show that nursing home nurses and hospital nurses also are less satisfied with their own employer-provided healthcare and retirement benefits than nurses who work in other healthcare settings. Fifty-one percent of nursing home nurses were unhappy with their health insurance and benefits, while 60% of nurses in nursing homes and half of nurses in hospitals are dissatisfied with retirement benefits. The study appears in the policy journal Health Affairs.