Spirituality and job satisfaction among female Jewish Israeli hospital nurses

Abstract

This paper is a report of a study conducted to examine the relationship between spirituality and hospital nurses' work satisfaction and to determine the unique contributions of various specific aspects of spirituality to their work satisfaction. Spirituality has been indicated as a possible contributor to nurses' job satisfaction. However, few researchers have examined the relationship between spirituality and nurses' job satisfaction. During 2007, 120 female Jewish Israeli hospital nurses responded to a questionnaire including a multidimensional measure of spirituality and a measure of overall job satisfaction. Correlation analysis indicated a positive relationship between life coherency aspects of spirituality and spiritual values with job satisfaction. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated the particular importance of an idealistic spiritual orientation (positive contribution) and a transcendent spiritual orientation (negative contribution) to the prediction of nurses' job satisfaction. The relationship between spirituality and nurses' job satisfaction is complex. Hospital managers may be able to enhance job satisfaction by providing opportunities for nurses to satisfy their spiritual needs (in particular, altruistic and ideological orientations) on the job. In addition, nurses with a strong transcendent orientation may be identified and given special attention to increase the likelihood of job satisfaction.