Pengaruh Caring Leadership terhadap Kepuasan Kerja Perawat Pelaksana di Puskesmas Wayaloar Kabupaten Halmahera Selatan

Abstract

High nurses’ dissatisfaction with their job can cause low work performance, high turnover rate, poor performance, lack of enthusiasm, and poor product quality. Nurses’ job satisfaction is a manifestation of the nurses’ perception reflected in their attitude and is focused on the nurses’ behaviors on the job. The average nurses’ job satisfaction is still very low at present. An effort which can be made to improve the nurses’ job satisfaction in public health center is by implementing effective leadership style. Caring leadership is a leadership style which means leading with compassion and wisdom, improving motivation as well as protecting and creating a conducive working environment to improve the nurses’ performance and job satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of caring leadership on the nurses’ job satisfaction. This study used a pre-post test quasi-experimental design with a control group. The total samples were 58 nurses selected using purposive sampling technique. Data were collected by observation sheets to assess the implementation of caring leadership, and questionnaires to assess the job satisfaction, and were analyzed using a paired t-test. The results showed differences in the mean value of nurses’ job satisfaction before and after the implementation of caring leadership with p-value = 0,001, meaning there were effects of caring leadership on the nurses’ job satisfaction. This study concluded that the implementation of caring leadership could improve the job satisfaction of nurses in public health centers. Based on these findings, it is suggested that caring leadership is implemented continuously and consistently in all health service activities in public health centers since caring leadership can improve nurses’ job satisfaction and impact on the quality of service. Keywords: Caring leadership, job satisfaction, staff nurses