RESEARCH ARTICLE


Evaluation of Staff’s Job Satisfaction in the Spinal Cord Unit in Italy



Cominetti Laura 1, Garrino Lorenza*, 2, Decorte Rita3, Felisi Nadia3, Matta Ebe4, Actis Maria Vittoria5, Carone Roberto 6, Gregorino Silvano7, Dimonte Valerio2
1 City Hospital Health and Science of the City of Turin, Italy
2 Department of Public Health and Paedriatric Sciences, Turin University, Italy
3 SCU ASO CTO/M. Adelaide, Turin, Italy
4 ASO CTO/M, Adelaide, Turin, Italy
5 Functional Rehabilitation Department, ASO CTO/M. Adelaide, Turin, Italy
6 Spinal Cord Injuries Department, ASO CTO/M. Adelaide, Turin, Italy
7 University Degree Course in Nursing, Turin University, Italy


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Creative Commons License
© Cominetti et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Public Health and Paedriatric Sciences, Turin University, Italy; Tel: +39(0)11 790.5823 (670.5823); Fax: +39(0)ll 790.5871; E-mail: lorenza.garrino@unito.it


Abstract

In July 2007 a Spinal Cord Unit was set up in Turin (Italy) within the newly integrated structure of the Orthopaedic Traumatologic Centre, warranting a multidisciplinary and professional approach according to International Guidelines. This approach will be possible through experimentation of a personalized care model. To analyze job satisfaction of health care professionals operating within the Spinal Cord Unit, preliminary to organizational change. Data collection was carried out by using questionnaires, interviews, shadowing. Results from quantitative analysis on the self-filled questionnaires were integrated with results from qualitative analysis. All the health care professionals operating in the field were involved. Positive aspects were the perception of carrying out a useful job, the feeling of personal fulfilment and the wish to engage new energies and resources. Problematic aspects included role conflict among staff categories and communication with managers. The positive aspects can be exploited to create professional practices facilitating role and expertise integration, information spreading and staff identification within the organization rather than team work. Data of job satisfaction and self efficacy of health care workers can be considered basic requirement before implementing an organizational change. The main challenges is multiprofessional collaboration.

Keywords: Job satisfaction, spinal cord injuries, teamwork, nursing, rehabilitation, interprofessional relations.