Work stress and job satisfaction of community health nurses in Southwest China

Purpose: To explore the correlation between work stress and job satisfaction in Community Health Nurses (CHNs) in Southwest of China. Backgrounds: Work stress and job satisfaction are interacting factors and together with demographic characteristics, contribute to working motivation in nurses. Little is known about status of those factors in Southwest of China where CHNs are detrimentally important for meeting the explosively increasing demands of citizens to community health services. Methods: This was across-sectional survey and analysis based on questionnaires related to demographic status, work stress and job satisfaction of 969 nurses from 56 CHS centers in 12 prefectural-level cities of Sichuan Province located in Southwest China. Results: Work stress and job satisfaction of CHNs in Sichuan Province were moderate and negatively correlated (p<0.001). Among demographic profiles, age, educational, job training on community nursing were significant contributors for job satisfaction (p<0.05). Among work stresses, professional and career advancement, work environment and resources, management and interpersonal relationships, and workload and work duration were significant contributors for job satisfaction (p<0.05). Conclusions: This study indicated possible significantly negative effects of work stress on job satisfaction of CHNs in Southwest China, approaches to releasing work stress, increasing opportunities for job training and continuing education, raising salary and improving promotion system are therefore highly recommended