Purpose: This study was designed to identify the moderating effect of empowerment in the relationship between self-leadership and job satisfaction for long-term care hospital nurses, and to provide meaningful data to develop nursing programs toward improvement in job satisfaction. Methods: Participants were 175 nurses working in 7 long-term care hospitals Data collection was done from January to February 2015. The data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and hierarchical regression analysis with SPSS/WIN 18.0. Results: The levels of self-leadership, empowerment and job satisfaction were low in long-term care nurses. The older nurses showed a higher level of self-leadership (F=5.42, p=.001) and nurses in higher positions showed a higher level of empowerment (F=3.40, p=.036). Also, self-leadership and empowerment were associated with job satisfaction (r=.47, p<.001; r=.74, p<.001) and empowerment did not have a moderating effect on job satisfaction. Conclusion: Self-leadership and empowerment improvement programs for novice nurses or staff nurses in long-term care hospitals need to be developed and tested in future studies.