Abstract

Introduction: Motivation is an internal state that generates behaviors which trigger into actions in a specific direction and for a specific purpose. Objective: To describe the relationship between motivation and work performance in the nursing staff of a public institution in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. Methods: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted between November 2021 and January 2022 in nursing professionals of a public institution in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires. The sample consisted of 60 nursing professionals from a public institution selected by non-probabilistic convenience sampling. Two instruments were used: approach to motivation in three dimensions and a competency-based work performance evaluation. Results: The sample was characterized by being mostly females aged between 34 and 53, with a professional nursing degree. The professional performance in the three dimensions was of medium level in more than 96% of the sample studied, and it is noteworthy that there were no people with high performance. The inferential analysis between general motivation and the 3 dimensions of professional performance had a statistically significant positive correlation, so it can be stated that, in the three dimensions, the higher the general motivation, the higher the professional performance. Conclusions: One of the most important findings is the statistically significant positive correlation between motivation and professional performance. That demonstrates the need to work on future research where intervention strategies are evaluated in order to qualitatively characterize and raise both indicators in light of the obtained results.