Development and validation of an instrument to assess job satisfaction in eye-care personnel.

Purpose: The aim was to develop and validate an instrument to measure job satisfaction in eye-care personnel and assess the job satisfaction of one-year trained vision technicians in India.

Methods: A pilot instrument for assessing job satisfaction was developed, based on a literature review and input from a public health expert panel. Rasch analysis was used to assess psychometric properties and to undertake an iterative item reduction. The instrument was then administered to vision technicians in vision centres of Andhra Pradesh in India. Associations between vision technicians' job satisfaction and factors such as age, gender and experience were analysed using t-test and one-way analysis of variance.

Results: Rasch analysis confirmed that the 15-item job satisfaction in eye-care personnel (JSEP) was a unidimensional instrument with good fit statistics, measurement precisions and absence of differential item functioning. Overall, vision technicians reported high rates of job satisfaction (0.46 logits). Age, gender and experience were not associated with high job satisfaction score. Item score analysis showed non-financial incentives, salary and workload were the most important determinants of job satisfaction.

Conclusions: The 15-item JSEP instrument is a valid instrument for assessing job satisfaction among eye-care personnel. Overall, vision technicians in India demonstrated high rates of job satisfaction.