Nursing home work practices and nursing assistants' job satisfaction.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the impact of nursing home work practices, specifically compensation and working conditions, on job satisfaction of nursing assistants employed in nursing homes.


METHODS
Data are from the 2004 National Nursing Assistant Survey, responses by the nursing assistants' employers to the 2004 National Nursing Home Survey, and county-level data from the Area Resource File. Multinomial logistic regression was used to estimate effects of compensation and working conditions on nursing assistants' overall job satisfaction, controlling for personal characteristics and local labor market characteristics.


RESULTS
Wages, benefits, and job demands, measured by the ratio of nursing assistant hours per resident day, were associated with job satisfaction. Consistent with previous studies, job satisfaction was greater when nursing assistants felt respected and valued by their employers and had good relationships with supervisors. Nursing assistants were more satisfied when they had enough time to complete their work, when their work was challenging, when they were not subject to mandatory overtime, and where food was not delivered to residents on trays.


CONCLUSIONS
This is the first investigation of nursing assistant job satisfaction using a nationally representative sample of nursing assistants matched to information about their employing nursing homes. The findings corroborate results of previous studies in showing that compensation and working conditions that provide respect, good relationships with supervisors, and better staffing levels are important to nursing assistant job satisfaction.
Bishop
Christine E
CE
The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Room 214, Schneider Institutes for Health Policy, Brandeis University, Mailstop 035, 415 South Street, P.O. Box 549110, Waltham, MA 02454-9110, USA. bishop@brandeis.edu
Squillace
Marie R
MR
Meagher
Jennifer
J
Anderson
Wayne L
WL
Wiener
Joshua M
JM
D000328:Adult; D004651:Employment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009728:Nursing Assistants / Q000523:psychology; D009735:Nursing Homes / Q000458:organization & administration; D015279:Organizational Culture; D012456:Salaries and Fringe Benefits; D014481:United States; D000078329:Workforce; D016526:Workload