| Abstract [eng] |
Advanced practice nurses play an increasingly important role in ensuring the effectiveness of the healthcare system and the efficiency of service delivery. Despite the growing demand for these specialists, their retention remains a challenge; therefore, it is important to analyse their professional self-fulfilment and job satisfaction. The aim of this master‘s thesis is to analyse the associations between professional self-fulfilment and job satisfaction among advanced practice nurses. Objectives. 1) To assess the level and expression of professional self-fulfilment among advanced practice nurses. 2) To determine and quantitatively evaluate the level of job satisfaction among advanced practice nurses, as well as the individual and organizational factors influencing it. 3) To determine the correlations between professional self-fulfilment, job satisfaction, and sociodemographic indicators among advanced practice nurses. Methods. A quantitative cross-sectional study design was applied. Data were collected in Lithuania using an anonymous online questionnaire and a non-probability purposive sampling method. The study sample consisted of 41 advanced practice nurses. The research instrument included questions on sociodemographic questions, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ, short form), and the Professional Fulfilment Index (PFI). Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics software (version 30.0). Results. The level of professional self-fulfilment among advanced practice nurses was high (3.2  0.7). The highest-rated aspects among the study participants were the perceived meaningfulness of work (3.3  0.8), and the ability to deal with complex work-related situations (3.3  0.7). The overall level of job satisfaction was moderately high (3.0  0.7). Job satisfaction was most strongly influenced by such individual aspects of professional activity as opportunity to help others (3.6  0.6) and the opportunity to use one‘s abilities at work (3.5  0.8). Among organizational factors, the most important were job security (3.6  0.7) and the opportunity to work independently (3.4  0.9). The lowest ratings were identified for organizational aspects of work, namely salary and workload (2.4  1.4), career opportunities (2.7  1.2), and the implementation of organizational policies (2.7  1.1). A strong statistically significant positive relationship was found between professional self-fulfilment and job satisfaction (r = 0.74; p < 0.001), indicating that higher levels of professional self-fulfilment are associated with higher job satisfaction. Sociodemographic factors such as age, gender, work experience as an advanced practice nurse, workplace, and workload were not significantly associated with either professional self-fulfilment or job satisfaction. However, respondents with more than 10 years of overall nursing experience reported lower job satisfaction. Conclusions. The level of professional self-fulfilment among advanced practice nurses was high and was most strongly associated with the perceived meaningfulness of work and the ability to manage complex professional situations. Job satisfaction was moderately high and was positively influenced by both individual and organizational factors. A strong statistically significant positive relationship was identified between professional self-fulfilment and job satisfaction. |
