Impact of Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation on Work Engagement: A Cross-Sectional Study of Nurses Working in Long-Term Care Facilities

 Nurses’ work motivation is an important factor that impacts their job satisfaction and work en-gagement, affecting their quality of care. Few studies on the factors impacting nurses’ work en-gagement have investigated work motivation. This original study divided work motivation into intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and examined how each affects nurses’ work engagement in long-term care facilities. We randomly selected 1200 facilities from 6055 long-term care facilities in eastern Japan. Two nurses from each facility completed a self-report questionnaire (an in-strument newly developed for this study for evaluating intrinsic and extrinsic work motivation) to assess their work engagement, job satisfaction, and work motivation. Multiple regression analysis of 561 questionnaires investigated the relationship between work motivation and work engagement, indicating that intrinsic work motivation, job satisfaction, and age had a significant positive effect on work engagement, while extrinsic work motivation had no significant effect. However, half the nurses chose to work because of extrinsic work motivation and the high turn-over rate of nursing staff in long-term care facilities. These findings indicate the importance of considering measures to foster nurses’ intrinsic motivation to improve work engagement. Fur-ther research should investigate how to improve the intrinsic motivation of nurses working in long-term care facilities.

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,2022,19,1284,