Assessment of factors influencing job satisfaction among healthcare workers' in public hospitals in Nairobi County, Kenya

Background: According to (Kalinski, 2020) Job satisfaction is a complex combination of psychological, emotional feeling and other environmental factors that can affect an employee positively and give them a sense of achievement on the job. Further, He implys that job satisfaction can be linked to doing a job one enjoys, being productive and getting positive intrinsic rewards like enthusiasm, and contentment. On March 14, 2024 the healthcare worker’s through their union representatves (KMPDU & KNUN) announced a nationwide strike in Kenya. This strike lasted for 56 days and was called off on May 8th 2024 after negotiations, the government officials agreed to some of the union demands. (MoH, 2024). It is evident that Healthcare workers are dissatisfied and the link to the major causes is not clear. Objective: This study sort to investigate the factors influencing job satisfaction among healthcare workers' in public hospitals in Nairobi County, Kenya based on Herzberg’s Motivation Theory. Methodology: This study employed a cross-sectional research design, targeting healthcare workers from five select Hospitals in Nairobi County, Kenya. A sample of 400 participants was selected using stratifed random sample based on proportioanl allocation. The data collection instrument was self-administered questionnaires and analysis done using the SPSS software, version 26.0, with the level of significance set at 0.05. Analyzed data was presented using tables with both descriptive, and inferentiall statistics i.e. Chisquare, Odds Ratios and Confidence Intervals. Results: The study found that promotions ( p-value<0.001) with OR =1.790 and 95% CI = (1.090, 2.939), Training and development (p-value<0.001) with OR = 1.960 and 95% CI = (1.214, 3.165), Communication (p-value=0.001) with OR = 1.189 and 95% CI = (0.687, 2.059), Supervision (P-Value < 0.001) with OR = 1.380 and 95% CI = (0.805, 2.365), quality of buildings in terms of space (p-value<0.001) with OR = 1.505 and 95% CI = (0.924, 2.453), Equipment adequacy (p-value<0.001) with OR = 2.871 and 95% CI = (1.698, 4.854), Availability of PPEs’ (p-value=0.022) with OR = 2.394 and 95% CI = (1.316, 4.357), and Availability of amenities such as toilets and water (p-value=0.04) with OR = 1.844 and 95% CI = (1.458, 2.556) had a statistically significant effect on satisfaction/dissatisfaction by Healthcare workers. Conclusion: The study was able to established that there are factors determining job satisfaction among healthcare workers in Public hospitals in Nairobi County, Kenya. They include salaries, fringe benefits, training and development, recognition and reward, supervision and management, communication, equipment and utilities, lighting and ventilation, and conducive work environment. Over (70%) of the respondents were not satisfied with their work environment. This study recommends that employers should come up with clear guidelines on rewards such as merit-based promotions, training, and development opportunities through programs such as in-service training and compensation for extra training that HCWs incur expenses for, and more resources should be invested towards the construction of more hospital spaces and improving the quality of the available hospital spaces.