Professional Experience Placement

Job satisfaction is an important component to well-being. Enjoyment is  an aspect of job satisfaction.  This study about enjoyment in nursing provides an interesting insight into the factors that contribute to job satisfaction in nursing. The authors situate the reader in the background section.  This is achieved through discussion about what enjoyment is in nursing, previous studies, tools used and the importance of the concept. Wilkes et al (2016) explore what nurses enjoy about their work as this is a workforce recruitment and retention issue at a large teaching hospital in New south Wales, Australia.

A quantitative survey was used to collect the data from 124 respondents. They found there were four factors including:

• Supportive relationships;
• Unsupportive relationships;
• Workplace conditions; and
• Workplace adversity.

80% of nurses reported these factors impacted on their work enjoyment levels. Angry staff, bullying and harassment were the most negative attributes.

Conversely there were nine items that showed a positive effect on enjoyment with educating others, connecting with others, variety of work, doing and sharing with others and supporting others, being the most positive.

These findings have implications for clinical supervisors and supervision of students because it seems that enjoyment can be found from promoting supportive relationships, connecting and sharing.  These are attributes of the role of a clinical supervisor! These attributes also fit well with the function of clinical supervision. Clinical supervisors are integral to ensuring students have a high quality healthcare experience.  It is the welcoming, belongingness and acceptance by the team that enables students to feel they are in a supportive environment which enables a conducive learning environment. Furthermore, clinical supervisors can gain satisfaction or enjoyment from guiding and supporting students in meeting their objectives and learning within this experiential environment.

If you have any comments about enjoyment in nursing, especially clinical supervision, you are welcome to post them here.  Please join us @PEPCommunity.