The relationship of participation in shared governance to work satisfaction among cardiovascular nurses working in a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Shared governance has been used as a framework that provides nurses with both the structure and the mechanism to enhance decision-making authority and improve level of satisfaction. This study examined the level of work satisfaction among nurses working at cardiovascular department after the implementation of Shared Governance Model in a tertiary hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A descriptive cross sectional study design was adopted using the Index of Work Satisfaction Part-B (IWS-Part-B). Non-random convenience sample of 168 nurses who have worked in the cardiovascular department for more than two years received self-administered questionnaire (IWS-Part-B) on level of satisfaction about tasks, autonomy, interaction, decision making, professional status and pay. 145 nurses returned the questionnaire with a response rate of 86.3%. Overall, nurses were moderately satisfied (IWS-Part-B: 181.10). They were moderately satisfied with autonomy, interaction, and professional status variables; while they were moderately unsatisfied with decision making, tasks requirements, and payment variables. Participation in decision making was the strongest predictor of work satisfaction, accounting for 71.4% of the explained variance (r = 0.845, R2 = 0.714, p = .000), followed by autonomy variable (r = 0.821, R2 = 0.671, p = .000) and interaction variable (r = 0.803, R2 = 0.645, p = .000). The findings of this study supported the positive role that shared governance plays in empowering nurses and enhancing their participation in the decision making process. Another multi-centers study is needed recruiting a larger sample from different departments that adopt SGM to better detect the effect of SGM on level of satisfaction and decision making in particular.