“Walking Along a Difficult Path Towards Reward”: Home Healthcare Nurses’ Work Experiences and Satisfaction

Abstract

The growing demand for skilled personnel and the challenges faced by home healthcare (HHC) underscore the significance of these issues for nurses’ job satisfaction and daily experience of working in this field. The aim of the study was to explore the lived experience and job satisfaction of HHC nurses working in Greece. A qualitative study with semi-structured interviews was conducted. The data were collected from November to December 2021. The analysis was based on thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke. Data were organized with Atlas.ti v8. The sample consisted of 9 nurses (8 female and 1 male), with mean value of 10.22 years of working experience in the field of HHC. Four main themes emerged during the thematic analysis: “Nurse as a guest” “Understanding the world of home healthcare,” “Walking along a difficult path towards reward,” and “Looking forward to a better tomorrow.” Nurses’ descriptions gave the framework of working conditions in HHC and the uniqueness of this working environment, highlighting at the same time the factors that positively or negatively affect their job satisfaction. This valuable knowledge could act as a basis for the development of new targeted strategies, with the goal of creating a healthy, productive environment that would strengthen the desire of nurses to work in HHC.