Actions developed towards work satisfaction of the nursing team at an intensive care unit for adults

Abstract

This is a study of a quasi experimental type that had the purpose to present the Index of Work Satisfaction (IWS) of a nursing team of an Intensive Care Unit for adults, and the activities made for improvement. All the ethical requirements regarding researches with human beings were met. Data collection was carried out through a questionnaire that pointed out the components the team was less satisfied with. Through a recorded interview, suggestions were made for improvement of the satisfaction at the work. Starting from that, the following activities were developed in partnership with the nursing team and professors: reformulation of the Nursing Report, elaboration of Administrative Instruments, attribution of activities by category, knowledge about the Staff Discipline Regimen, training of the team, accomplishment and publication of scientific works, dissemination of the activities developed by studies at the Intensive Care Unit. Those actions raised the nurses IWS from 12.08 to 15.05, and of the assistant nurses from 11.33 to 12.13. They remained low, because, according to Stamps (1997), the highest index consists of 37. In spite of the fact that the institution does not adopt the Quality Management model, it was verified that the performance based on the principles of that approach provided improvement on the work satisfaction of the team.