Nurses’ perceptions on professional practice environment and job satisfaction in select hospitals of Zambales, Philippines

This descriptive-survey study aimed to determine the perceptions of nurses on professional practice environment and job satisfaction in select hospitals in Zambales, Philippines. Research tools adopted from Nurses’ Work Index-R (Aiken and Patrician, 2000) and Nurses’ Job Satisfaction Scale (Yang et al., 2014) were utilized to gather data from 180 hospital staff nurses. Results of the pilot study reveals that the internal content validity index was .974 and both professional practice environment (α=.943) and nurses’ job satisfaction (α=.830) yielded reliability coefficients of greater than the 0.70.Ethical clearance was properly secured prior to the distribution of survey-questionnaires. The findings revealed that the respondents agreed to the aspects of professional practice environment (PPE) in their workplace such as supportive management, nurses’ involvement and acknowledgement of professionalism, quality of care and collaboration, and adequate resources. On the other hand, they were satisfied on the aspects of job satisfaction in terms of benefit and promotion, human relationship, work load and job environment. Hospital management should maintain a supportive workplace which encourages nurses to remain in the health workforce and enables them to perform effectively. Moreover, promoting social relationships and interactions among nurses and other hospital personnel will enhance the interpersonal relationships in the workplace. Cohesion, collaboration and good communication with colleagues will assure quality care for patients. Thus, health policy-makers and managers have to focus on promoting a sound professional practice environment.