Relationship Between Exercise Activity and Job Satisfaction of Nurses

Abstract

Introduction: Although working environment and conditions has been improving for long time, the average turnover rate climbed to 11.0% in 2010 and remained high and the shortage of nurses is a crucial problem in Japan. Recent studies revealed the effect of exercise activity of business workers or teachers on stress reaction and well-being, however, few of them did not focus on hospital nurses. In this study, we aimed to clarify the relationship exercise activity and job satisfaction among nurses in Japan.

Methods: This research was carried out by two folds in a university hospital. First, semi-structured interview survey was carried out on 5 female nurses and 5 female nurses in November 2016 to find out factors influencing job satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Second, a questionnaire survey was carried out among 692 nurses in January 2017. The questionnaire consisted of three sections, the first of which was a face sheet. The second section was designed to investigate for exercise habit (e.g., types and frequency of exercise, and exercising time). The third section assessed the degree of job satisfaction and turnover intention.

Results: A total of 659 nurses (female: 618; male: 4¹⁾ participated in this study (valid response rate of 95.23%). The mean age was 29.98 years old (SD=7.99) and the mean seniority in current hospital was 6.9 (SD=5.0) years. Of the respondents, 304 (43.93%) reported that they "did exercise at least more than once a year, twice a year, four times, or six times, or they engaged in exercise more than every month. The frequency of exercise in a year was 11.03 times a year (SD=29.25). With respect to job satisfaction, the high job satisfaction group had a significantly higher percentage of subjects who did exercise at least once a year compared to those who did once and not even once a year (See Figure).

Conclusion: In our study, we found significant relationship between exercise activity and job satisfaction. As shown by previous studies, nurses with high job satisfaction tend to have stronger intention to continue working. This study offers important insights into effective retention practices that promote exercise activity in nurse organization might bring about the decrease of turnover as well as improving job satisfaction of nurses.