A meta‐analysis of studies of nurses' job satisfaction

Although several variables have been correlated with nursing job satisfaction, the findings are not uniform across studies. Three commonly noted variables from the nursing literature are: autonomy, job stress, and nurse–physician collaboration. This meta‐analysis examined the strength of the relationships between job satisfaction and autonomy, job stress, and nurse–physician collaboration among registered nurses working in staff positions. A meta‐analysis of 31 studies representing a total of 14,567 subjects was performed. Job satisfaction was most strongly correlated with job stress ( ES  = −.43), followed by nurse–physician collaboration ( ES  = .37), and autonomy ( ES  = .30). These findings have implications for the importance of improving the work environment to increase nurses' job satisfaction. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health 30:445–458, 2007.