Job satisfaction and organizational attachment of nurses holding doctoral degrees

A model explaining job satisfaction and organizational attachment (commitment and intent to leave) was estimated for a national sample of nurses holding doctoral degrees and employed in academic and nonacademic settings. The purpose of the study was (a) to test a model from Price-Mueller that has been used primarily for nurses who do not have their doctorates and (b) to determine if the results of the test were consistent with expectations from the professions literature. The results showed that although nursing is categorized as a semiprofession in the professions literature, the satisfaction and attachment of nurses holding doctorate degrees was explained by variables from arguments about numbers of the well-established professions, known as the ''true'' professions.