School Novice Health Teachers’ Perception of Job Performance Difficulties and Job Satisfaction

ABSTRACT

Purpose@#This study aimed to determine the correlation between job performance difficulties and job satisfaction that novice health teachers experienced in a new school environment, and provide the basic data necessary for policy development. @*Methods@#Data were collected from 196 novice health teachers without in-service training program for the qualification of 1st grade and with less than four years of work experience in Korea. The self-report questionnaire consisted of general characteristics, perception of difficulties in job performance, and job satisfaction. The data were analyzed using the x 2 test, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. @*Results@#Novice health teachers had the most difficulty in health education during their job performance, whereas teachers without hospital clinical experience encountered difficulties in health management. Those with less than two years of teaching experience or no experience of being contract health teachers had higher job performance difficulties. The results revealed that the lack of experience in performance at a school site had a considerable influence on the difficulty in job performance. In terms of job satisfaction, novice health teachers had the highest satisfaction with status recognition and the lowest satisfaction with their tasks in charge. Additionally, as the difficulty in job performance increased, job satisfaction decreased. @*Conclusion@#The study results indicated the need for training to provide novice health teachers with sufficient experience in job performance before being placed in a school. The provision of support to respond to difficulties in job performance will improve job satisfaction and contribute not only to the development of novice health teachers, but also to the improvement of the quality of school health.