Job satisfaction among nurse educators in basic schools of nursing in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

Since the inception of the Diploma in Nurse Education (DNE) programme in 1974 by the University of Zimbabwe in conjuction with the Ministry of Health; a total of about fourty percent of the diplomates have resigned from their teaching posts within the Ministry of Health basic Nurse training schools. This figure exclude Nurse tutors promoted to teaching posts in the post-basic schools; Nursing Services administration and head office. The purposes of the study were therefore; to instigate the major factors contributing to this soaring attrition rate and to determine the level of job satisfation among Nurse educators currently employed. The reasons given for resigning were many and varied but pointed mainly to aspects such as poor administration within the school and the institution; excessive workload; lack of fringe benefits; poor salaries and dissatisfaction with the quality of the nurse being produced who does not possess the appropriate attitude towards patient care. For those employed major dissatisfiers were factors such as slow and limited career mobility; low job status; professional autonomy. Nurse educators were however; satisfied with certain aspects of their job such as being able to plan one's own work and being able to set one's own objectives. They also felt adequately prepared for thier teaching role. Overall the study revealed high levels of dissatisfaction and low levels of satisfaction among Nurse educators in employment and hence their exodus from the Ministry of Health basic schools of Nursing