Professional Values and Job Satisfaction Levels of Pediatric Nurses and the Influencing Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the perceptions of professional values and job satisfaction levels of pediatric nurses and the influencing factors.
METHODS: This study was conducted with 134 nurses working in the pediatric clinics of three hospitals in Turkey. Nurses’ Professional Values Scale and Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire were used to collect the data.
RESULTS: It was found that the pediatric nurses had high professional values and job satisfaction scores were moderate. It was further noted that pediatric nurses who were single, received the education in a nursing high school, had a professional experience of 11-15 years in pediatric clinics, were working as clinical responsible nurse, and were working at day shift steadily had higher scores of professional values. It was found that job satisfaction of the pediatric nurses, who were married, received the education in a nursing high school, had a professional experience 11-15 years in pediatric clinics, were working as clinical responsible nurse, and were working at day shift steadily, was significantly higher than the others. The results also indicated a positive and high correlation between pediatric nurse’ perception of professional values and job satisfaction levels.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: It was concluded that promoting professional values among nurses would eventually result in increasing levels of job satisfaction. This study is believed to provide substantial data in this particular field in Turkey, which is considered to guide nurse managers to design well-established and unbiased programs for pediatric nurses.