The National Health Care Association is concerned about the shortage of nurses the health care profession is projecting for the future. To learn the current degree of job satisfaction among nurses, the association sponsored a study of hospital nurses throughout the country. As part of this study, 50 nurses in a sample indicated their degree of satisfaction with their work, their pay, and their opportunities for promotion. Each of the three aspects of satisfaction was measured on a scale from 0 to 100, with larger values indicating higher degrees of satisfaction. The data collected also showed the type of hospital employing the nurses. The types of hospitals were Private, Veterans Administration (VA), and University. A portion of the data is shown in Table 3.14. The complete data set can be found on the CD accompanying the text in the file named Health.

Managerial Report

Use methods of descriptive statistics to summarize the data. Present the summaries that will be beneficial in communicating the results to others. Discuss your findings. Specifically, comment on the following questions.

TABLE 3.14 SATISFACTION SCORE DATA FOR A SAMPLE OF 50 NURSES

2. On the basis of descriptive measures of variability, what measure of job satisfaction appears to generate the greatest difference of opinion among the nurses? Explain.

3. What can be learned about the types of hospitals? Does any particular type of hospital seem to have better levels of job satisfaction than the other types? Do your results suggest any recommendations for learning about and improving job satisfaction? Discuss.

4. What additional descriptive statistics and insights can you use to learn about and possibly improve job satisfaction?

Nurse Hospital Work Pay Promotion 74 72 75 89 69 85 89 88 47 76 53 66 47 Private 63 2 VA University Private University Private University Private 37 92 62 16 56 80 64 64 36 47 University Private 88 84 55 52 10 42 66 45 46 University University University VA VA Private 79 84 87 84 59 53 66 74 63 47 49 48 49 95 72 66 57 37 52 40 50