Effect of Motivation on Job Satisfaction among Nurses at Osun State University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria

This cross‐sectional study at Osun State University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Nigeria, examines how motivational determinants—both intrinsic and extrinsic—influence nurses’ job satisfaction and, by extension, job performance and patient‐care quality. Surveying 146 nurses, we found that recognition, supportive supervision, and opportunities for professional growth emerged as the strongest positive predictors of overall satisfaction, whereas pay and safety concerns remained the lowest-scoring dimensions. Reliability analysis (Cronbach’s α = 0.70–0.93) confirmed the internal consistency of our Job Satisfaction Index (Table 1). Correlation coefficients (r = 0.45–0.72, all p < 0.01) demonstrated that the ten satisfaction subscales form a cohesive construct (Table 2). Gender‐stratified analyses revealed that while 58 % of female nurses fell into a medium‐satisfaction category (mean = 138.45, SD = 11.53), 23 % of male nurses achieved high satisfaction (mean = 191.00, SD = 15.99) (Table 3). One-sample and independent-samples t-tests confirmed that most subscale means differed significantly from the neutral midpoint of 3.0 (p < 0.05) and that male nurses reported higher satisfaction than females across nine of ten dimensions (p < 0.01) (Tables 4–5). These findings underscore the paramount importance of non-financial motivators, especially recognition and autonomy, in sustaining nurse morale in resource-limited settings