Nurses who work directly with patients in hospitals and other healthcare facilities report higher levels of dissatisfaction with their jobs and benefits than nurses who work in other settings, according to a new survey.
About a quarter of all hospital nurses surveyed said they were dissatisfied with their jobs, compared to 13% of nurses working in other settings, report researchers from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Nursing. Dissatisfaction levels were even higher when hospital nurses were asked about their benefits. Half said they're dissatisfied with their retirement benefits, and perhaps most surprisingly, 41% said they're dissatisfied with their healthcare benefits.
The stress of direct patient care appears to be taking a toll on nurses who work at the bedside, with 34% of hospital nurses saying they feel burned out in their current jobs, compared with only 22% of nurses in non-patient care settings reporting burnout.
The results of the survey, which included more than 95,000 nurses working in healthcare settings, suggest "that nurses in care-giving roles are experiencing a distinct disadvantage relative to their peers and others in the broader workforce, a disadvantage that is likely to affect the stability of the nurse workforce in the future," wrote the researchers from Penn School of Nursing's Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research.
The survey results and analysis are published in the journal Health Affairs.
Irene Tsikitas
