BACKGROUND: Job satisfaction is a key factor for the successful transition of newly graduated nurses (NGNs) and for retaining NGNs in their workplaces. However, there is limited evidence of the relationship between satisfaction regarding the nursing education program and NGNs' job satisfaction in the first year after graduation. Therefore, this study aims to examine the association of the nursing education related factors and NGNs' job satisfaction. METHODS: A cross-sectional study design with the utilization of data collected from the same respondents one year earlier as educational factors was applied. The data were collected from NGNs (n = 557) in 10 European countries using an electronic survey between February 2019 and September 2020, and analyzed in detail for four countries (n = 417). Job satisfaction was measured with three questions: satisfaction with current job, quality of care in the workplace, and nursing profession. Nursing education related factors were satisfaction with nursing education program, level of study achievements, nursing as the 1st study choice, intention to stay in nursing, and generic nursing competence. The data were analyzed statistically using logistic regression. RESULTS: Most of the NGNs in the 10 countries were satisfied with their current job (88.3%), the quality of care (86.4%) and nursing profession (83.8%). Finnish, German, Lithuanian and Spanish NGNs' satisfaction with the nursing education program at graduation was statistically significantly associated with their job satisfaction, i.e., satisfaction with their current job, the quality of care, and the nursing profession. Moreover, NGNs who had fairly often or very often intention to stay in nursing at graduation were more satisfied with their current job, with the quality of care, and with the nursing profession compared with NGNs who had never or fairly seldom intention to stay in nursing at graduation. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing education plays a significant role in NGNs' job satisfaction one year after graduation, indicating the importance to start career planning already during nursing education. Both nursing education providers and healthcare organizations could plan in close collaboration a transition program for NGNs to ease the transition phase and thus increase the NGNs' job satisfaction and ultimately the high-quality care of the patients.

Azienda Per 1 Servizi Sanitari Provinciali University of Verona 38123 Trento Italy

Department of Biostatistics University of Turku 20014 Turku Finland

Department of Fundamentals of Nursing Lisbon School of Nursing ESEL 1600 096 Lisbon Portugal

Department of Health Sciences School of Nursing and Physiotherapy Universidad Pontificia de Comillas San Juan de Dios Fundación San Juan de Dios Alberto Aguilera 23 28015 Madrid Spain

Department of Medicine Udine University 33100 Udine Italy

Department of Nursing and Midwifery University of Ostrava 70103 Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of Nursing Science Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin Comenius University in Bratislava 03601 Martin Slovakia

Department of Nursing Science University of Turku 20014 Turku Finland

Department of Nursing Universitat Internacional de Catalunya 08017 Barcelona Spain

Diaconia University of Applied Sciences 00580 Helsinki Finland

Faculty of Nursing University of Iceland 07 Reykjavík Iceland

Institute of Health and Nursing Science Martin Luther University Halle Wittenberg 06108 Halle Germany

Institute of Health Sciences Vilnius University 01513 Vilnius Lithuania

School of Health Sciences University of Aveiro 3810 193 Aveiro Portugal

School of Nursing Psychotherapy and Community Health Dublin City University Dublin 9 Ireland

Turku University Hospital 20521 Turku Finland

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