Employment Security of Nurses Baseline for a Strategic Human Resource Direction

This study is anchored on Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory which suggests that satisfaction of employees is related to motivation (e.g. achievement, recognition, advancement, growth, and responsibility) and dissatisfaction is related to hygiene factors (e.g. company policy and administration, supervision, interpersonal relationships, working conditions, pay, status, and job security). This study aimed to determine the level and predictors of employment security of nurses in both private and government hospitals in Negros Occidental, Philippines. The level of employment security was categorized into economic security, professional security, personal security, and workplace security. Specifically, this study examined the nurse- respondents’ profile in terms of types of hospital employed to, sex, civil status, number of dependents, educational attainment, rank, employment status, salary grade, net income, and length of service. This study also determined the significant differences on the level of employment security of nurses when assessed at different categories and when the respondents are grouped according to their profile. This is a descriptive study which surveyed and interviewed nurses (n=318) from 18 government hospitals, 3 infirmaries and 4 private hospitals which signified intention to participate in the study. The study used the stratified random sampling to insure representativeness of the nurse-respondents.Results revealed that the nurse-respondents expressed moderate security in economic aspect, low security in professional aspect, high security in personal aspect and moderate security in workplace aspect. Highly significant differences were noted between professional security and workplace security. Results also revealed that types of hospital, civil status, rank, employment status are predictors of employment security of the nurse-respondents. Hence, the results implied that fast turnover and migration of Philippine nurses are not mainly about economic issue but also about other confronting reasons related to other aspects especially professional security.

Keywords –job security, human resource management, nurses’ migration, turnover, two-factor theory