A model of job satisfaction of nurses: a reflection of nurses’ working lives in Mainland China Hong Lu, Alison E. While & K. Louise Barriball Accepted for publication 19 December 2006 Hong Lu BSc MSN PhD RN Lecturer School of Nursing, Peking University, Beijing, P.R.China Alison E. While MSc PhD RN RHV Professor of Community Nursing King’s College London, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, London, UK K. Louise Barriball BA PhD RN Senior Lecturer King’s College London, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, London, UK Correspondence to Alison While: e-mail: alison.while@kcl.ac.uk LU H., WHILE A.E. & BARRIBALL K.L. (2007) LU H., WHILE A.E. & BARRIBALL K.L. (2007) A model of job satisfaction of nurses: a reflection of nurses’ working lives in Mainland China. Journal of Advanced Nursing 58(5), 468–479 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04233.x Abstract Title. A model of job satisfaction of nurses: a reflection of nurses’ working lives in Mainland China Aim. This paper is a report of a study exploring nurses’ views and experience regarding their working lives in Mainland China. Background. The widespread nursing shortage and high turnover has become a global issue. Job satisfaction among nurses is a key factor in nurse turnover. Although several models of job satisfaction have been suggested in Western countries, these require further development and testing in Mainland China, where the social context of the labour market is different. Method. A survey design using questionnaires was adopted. A total of 512 hospital nurses in Beijing participated in the study in 2004, representing a response rate of 81%. Findings. There was a negative relationship between nurses’ job satisfaction and intention to leave their current hospitals, which was mediated by age (P < 0Æ05). About 40% of the variance in job satisfaction could be explained by the set of independent variables including organizational commitment, occupational stress, professional commitment, role conflict, role ambiguity, educational level, age and working years (R 2 ¼ 0Æ396). Organizational commitment had the strongest impact on job satisfaction, which explained 31Æ3% of the variance in this, followed by occupational stress and role conflict (5Æ5% and 1Æ9% respectively). In addition, both nurses’ role perception and actual role content influenced job satisfaction as well as occupational stress, role conflict and role ambiguity (P < 0Æ05). Nurses’ educa- tional level was also a factor related to role perception, professional commitment and role conflict (P < 0Æ05). Conclusion. Nurses’ job satisfaction could be increased through promoting organ- izational and professional commitment and reducing occupational stress, role conflict and role ambiguity. Keywords: job satisfaction, job turnover, Mainland China, nursing, occupational stress, organizational commitment, survey ORIGINAL RESEARCH JAN 468 Ó 2007 The Authors. Journal compilation Ó 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd