This exploratory, quantitative, and descriptive study aimed to characterize the night-shift nurses in a University Hospital in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, as well as to identify the actual professional satisfaction rate regarding six work components: autonomy, interaction, professional status, task requirements, organizational policies, and pay. For data collection, one survey was used in order for socio-demographic characterization and another to characterize the Work Satisfaction Index. The data was collected in March and April of 2008 and processed in the Statistical Analysis System software, version 9.1. The sample was composed of 42 participating nurses, mostly female (90.48%), aged more than 41 years (64.28%), either married or living with a partner (64.29%), with children (80.96%) and who chose to work in this shift (90.48%). Autonomy was considered the component which reached the highest level of real satisfaction, while organizational policies received the lowest level of satisfaction.
Job satisfaction; Night work; Nursing
