Job Autonomy As Perceived By Nursing Managers In Governmental Hospitals In The MOH- Gaza Governorates
Date
2011-01-02
Authors
Khalil Mostafa Shaqfa
خليل مصطفى شقفة
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Al-Quds University
Abstract
Job autonomy plays an important role in nurses’ job satisfaction, retention and
quality of patient care. It is argued that for nursing managers, job autonomy and job
satisfaction may be interrelated. Thus, the assessment of job autonomy among
nursing managers in health organizations is important for policy and administration
purposes as well as professional purposes.
The overall aim of this study was to assess the job autonomy among nurses as
perceived by nursing managers in the governmental hospitals in Gaza governorates
in order to promote professionalism in nursing.
A descriptive, analytical cross sectional design was used. Subjects of this study were
301 nurses who represented all the formally assigned nursing managers in
governmental hospitals. Self-administered questionnaire was used and 238
participants completed the questionnaire with a response rate of 83%. Data were
analyzed using the SPSS program. The content validity was validated by ten experts.
The reliability test using Cronbach Alpha coefficient was 0.707.
The study extracted six dimensions for autonomy which are: general perspective,
(m=3.47), managerial style (m=3.82), job description (m=3.69), job satisfaction
(m=4.09), nursing career (m=3.69) and work preference (m=3.06). The highest mean
score among dimensions is job satisfaction domain and the lowest is work preference
domain (m=3.06). The vast majority of nursing managers (94.2%) preferred to be
supervised by a person from the same profession, in addition, nursing managers
called for allowing the Chief Nursing Manager in the MOH to overall supervise all
nurses in the organization (39.0%).
The majority of nursing managers who were working in clinical settings (60.9%)
believed that they had adequate autonomy within their work arenas. However, 72.6%
of nurse managers believed that the current management style at the MOH inversely
affects nursing autonomy. The study results also showed that there were no
statistically significant differences in reference to the job title and education level (Pvalue
= 0.131 and 0.097 respectively). In contrary, results revealed that there are
statistical significant differences at 0.05 between males (M = 3.52 out of 5) and
females (M = 3.33); in the favor of males (P value = 0.003). Also, the result showed
that there are statistical significant differences in perceptions about autonomy in
reference to age were younger felt more autonomous than older counterparts (P value
= 0.004).
It is concluded that there is a great need to enhance job autonomy among nursing
managers through having clearer roles and responsibilities, adopting more effective
leadership practices, and developing more flexible work system.