Abstract
ObjectiveHealth professionals caring for persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) are faced with increasingly complex working conditions that can undermine their job satisfaction and the quality of their healthcare services. The aim of this study was to delve into health professionals’ job satisfaction by assessing the predictive role of happiness and meaning at work. Specifically, it was hypothesized that job meaning would moderate the relationship between job happiness and satisfaction.MethodsThe study hypothesis was tested among 108 healthcare professionals (53 physicians and 55 nurses) working in eight MS centers in Italy. Participants were administered the Eudaimonic and Hedonic Happiness Investigation and the Job Satisfaction Questionnaire. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to test the moderating role of job meaning between job happiness and satisfaction.ResultsA significant interaction effect of job happiness and meaning on job satisfaction was identified for both physicians and nurses. When work was attributed low meaning, participants experiencing high job happiness were more satisfied with their work than those reporting low happiness; by contrast, when work was perceived as highly meaningful, participants’ levels of job happiness did not significantly contribute to job satisfaction.ConclusionsFocusing on the interplay between job happiness and meaning, findings bring forward practical suggestions for the preservation and promotion of job satisfaction among health professionals working with MS patients. Particularly, they suggest the need to strengthen those job-related aspects that may enhance job meaning, thus providing health professionals with significant reasons to persevere in their work in the face of daily challenges.
Highlights
Health professionals caring for persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) are daily faced with relevant clinical challenges
When participants attached low meaning to their work, different levels of job happiness did not have a significant effect on the three outcome variables, whereas at high levels of job meaning, participants were more satisfied with their lives, and perceived more autonomy and environmental mastery if they reported high versus low job happiness
Compared with data collected from a large sample of Italian physicians (N = 254; mean/SD = 7.4/1.6) and nurses (N = 251; mean/SD = 7.0/1.8) using the same questionnaire [25], nurses in our study reported higher satisfaction levels (t(100.22) = 2.36, p = 0.02), whereas no significant differences were observed for physicians
Summary
Health professionals caring for persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) are daily faced with relevant clinical challenges. In their study among white-collar workers, they identified a significant moderating effect of job meaning in the relationship between positive affective disposition and work engagement. When participants attached low meaning to their work, different levels of job happiness did not have a significant effect on the three outcome variables, whereas at high levels of job meaning, participants were more satisfied with their lives, and perceived more autonomy and environmental mastery if they reported high versus low job happiness. These contrasting results may be related to the different operationalizations of positive affectivity in the two studies, or the different outcome variables under consideration. Considering the mixed results previously obtained [22, 23], no hypothesis was formulated on the type of interaction effect at high and low values of participants’ job meaning
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