BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The nursing profession is the one that employs the most people overall in the healthcare system and has the most one-on-one interactions with patients. As a direct consequence of this, nurses play a significant part in deciding the overall quality of medical care provided by hospitals as well as the outcomes for patients. In order for nurses to provide quality treatment, they need to be provided with an ideal professional practice environment, one that makes it possible for them to feel fulfilled in their work. On the other side, nurses are unhappy in their occupations, which threatens the efficiency and efficacy of the nursing staff as a whole (de Francisco, Meguid & Campbell, 2015). It is widely believed that one of the most essential factors in retaining nurses in the profession is job happiness (Wang, Tao, Ellenbecker, & Liu, 2012).
In an ideal world, the success of a company in accomplishing its goals and realizing its vision depends heavily on the well-being and contentment of its workforce. For instance, nurses are the safety net since they are always present at the bedside of their patients, caring for them, identifying faults in their prescriptions, and attending to their genuine need. Patients typically make their first point of contact with a healthcare facility at the nursing station. Therefore, the contentment of registered nurses in their jobs is essential to the delivery of high-quality care (Abualrub, El-Jardali, Jamal, and Al-Ru, 2015; Alenius, Tishelman, Runesdotter, & Lindqvist, 2013; Saleh, Darawad, and Al-Hussami, 2015). Since a consequence of this, having a work that one enjoys is the single most important aspect of a nurse’s life, as it has a direct impact on their motivation, output, level of care provided to patients, as well as retention rates (Ezeonwu, 2011; Aiken, et al., 2012).
Employees’ perspectives on their work and the procedures involved in doing it have a direct impact on the level of job satisfaction they experience. Employee expectations can be satisfied when job requirements are met, and this is the definition of job satisfaction. It’s “a”
a state of mind that is pleasant or good, brought on by thinking about one’s work or experiences in the workplace (Locke, 1969, p. 28). Job satisfaction is the result of people’s feelings and opinions about their jobs, which are influenced by a variety of intertwined elements related to the work itself and the work process. These elements can be broken down into two categories: those that are directly related to the work, and those that are indirectly related to the work. It depends on how important various parts of work are to you, such as autonomy, corporate policy, management style, promotion, salary, recognition, colleague relationships, the work itself, and the working environment. Some examples of these aspects include: These are separated into two categories by Herzberg: extrinsic or hygienic factors, and intrinsic or motivational factors (Herzberg, 1968; Asegid, Belachew, & Yimam, 2014).
One of the primary reasons why there is a nursing labor shortage around the world is because work satisfaction has been on the decline. The United States, Australia, and Canada are experiencing a nursing workforce deficit as a direct consequence of nurses quitting their organizations and/or the nursing profession due to a lack of job satisfaction (Bellasch, 2015). According to Buchan, O’May, and Dussault (2013) and Trautman (2015), it is anticipated that the United States would experience a shortfall of around 500,000 registered nurses by the year 2025, while Canada’s need is forecast to reach 60,000 by the year 2022. In a similar vein, nurses in Germany, France, Poland, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovakia, and China have expressed displeasure with their professions as nurses due to the large amount of labor they are required to do and the little amount of recognition and compensation they receive (Li, Bruyneel, Sermeus, Van den Heede, Aiken & Lesaffre, 2013). As a consequence of this, Bellasch (2015) concurred that the shortage will continue to have a detrimental influence on the quality of healthcare systems all over the world until suitable measures are taken to address the decline in job satisfaction among nurses and to put an end to the current high rate of nurse turnover.
The issue of discontentment in nursing profession, along with its repercussions, which include unsatisfactory outcomes for patients, high turnover rates, and attrition, has evolved into a concern on a global scale (Aiken et al., 2012). In point of fact, the problem is at its worse in nations with low and moderate incomes, such as those located in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The country of Nigeria can be found in Africa’s Sub-Saharan region (Dolamo & Olubiyi, 2013). This crisis in the health workforce is the primary reason why the majority of African countries were unable to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) (Gupta, Bush, Dorsey, Moore, van der Hoof, & Farmer, 2015; De Francisco, Meguid, & Campbell, 2015). In addition, problems in retaining nurses in the nursing workforce in Sub-Saharan Africa are one of the causes of the region’s high maternal and infant mortality rates, as well as the region’s inadequate response to and ineffective management of infectious diseases and epidemic outbreaks (Sun & Larson, 2015). On the other side, if a nurse is satisfied with the work that they are doing, it is expected of them that they will remain employed there and maintain their loyalty to the company.
The Nigerian healthcare system is under-resourced and overwhelmed as a result of the country’s rapidly increasing population, insufficient policy execution, and security issues. This is made worse by the inefficient management of human resources in the health sector, such as the improper assignment of nursing personnel and inadequate welfare packages (Green, 2016; Agboghoroma & Gharoro, 2015). Because of the push and pull factors connected with the dynamics of the global market, such as poor working conditions, unattractive benefits, and low pay, well-trained and competent Nigerian nurses are being forced to leave the country in search of better remuneration and working conditions in high-income countries. The nursing workforce shortage in Nigeria is being made significantly worse by the aforementioned concerns, particularly in terms of expertise (Walani, 2015).
It is more challenging to work as a nurse in Nigeria, particularly in rural areas and the more northern part of the country, which is plagued by terrorism (Innocent, Uche, & Uche, 2014; Adegoke, Atiyaye, Abubakar, Auta & Aboda, 2015). When it comes to the care of patients, registered nurses who work in these fields are frequently required to go above and beyond their professional jurisdiction. This is especially true in the event of epidemic outbreaks, such as those caused by meningitis, Ebola, and Lassa fever, as well as bombings. As a consequence of this, nurses are susceptible to a wide variety of occupational pressures, which might range from having an excessive amount of work to experiencing burnout.
confronting death and dealing with individuals who are dying (Green, 2016; Mosadeghrad, 2013). The majority of studies that were conducted on the subject of job satisfaction among nurses in other Nigerian states came to the conclusion that these nurses were dissatisfied with their jobs for a variety of reasons, including low pay, insufficient and substandard medical equipment and drugs, a lack of opportunities for advancement, and low self-esteem as a direct result of their employers undervaluing them (Nwafor, Immanel & Obi-Nwosu, 2015; Edoho, Bamidele, Neji & Frank, 2015; Adegoke et al., 2015).
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