Job satisfaction and the factors affecting satisfaction in nurse educators: A systematic review

Objectives: The present study seeks to answer the following two questions: Are nurse educators satisfied with their job? What are the factors affecting job satisfaction in nurse educators? Background: Nurse educators' job satisfaction has a significant role in the efficiency and performance of nursing schools. Identifying the factors affecting job satisfaction in nurse educators is essential to improving their quality of work and ultimately training efficient students and nurses. Evaluation: The present systematic review searched databases including PubMed, Medline, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, ProQuest, Google Scholar and SID for articles published up to April 24, 2018, using keywords including Nurse Teachers, Nurse Faculty, Academic Nurses, Nurse Educators, Dis/Satisfaction, Work, Career, Professional, Practice and Job. Of the total of 971 articles extracted, only 74 remained for the final analysis after the qualitative assessment. Key issue: The articles included in the analysis investigated the relationship between job satisfaction and its contributing factors rather than providing an accurate report on job satisfaction. Nonetheless, a number of the articles had reported fairly to very favorable levels of job satisfaction. The factors affecting nurse educators' job satisfaction were categorized into six levels, including personal, organizational, managerial, academic, professional and economic levels. Conclusion: Although job satisfaction was reported relatively well in the nurse educators, this condition depends on several indices. The lack of positive steps toward job satisfaction in nurse educators leads to destructive behaviors and turnover intentions; meanwhile, it is satisfied educators who can train competent nurses.