The Relationship between Work-Family Balance and Quality of Life of Nurses Working at Teaching Hospitals of Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran

Introduction: Work and family are source of tranquillity and if a balance is not maintained between these two, the pleasure, happiness, and peace of human beings will be lost. This is an irreplaceable loss. Regarding the importance of nurses' role in the health system, the present study aimed to study the relationship between work-family balance and quality of life of nurses working at teaching hospitals of Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Method: The present study is a cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study which was carried out on ۳۰۶ nurses working at ۳ teaching hospitals of Kerman. The stratified sampling method was used and the data collection tool was a questionnaire. Data analysis was carried out using SPSS software. Results: Nurses spend more time on their work than their family and they gained more satisfaction from their family life than their work. This suggests the imbalance between the two dimensions of time balance and satisfaction balance in nurses. This imbalance has resulted in a decrease in quality of life of the studied nurses. Nurses' involvement in work and life, as the third component of the work-life balance concept, was balanced and it did not indicate a significant correlation with quality of life. Nurses experiencing less work-family conflict and more stress in their life had higher levels of quality of life. Discussion and Conclusion: Nurses are exposed to the negative outcomes of work-life imbalance more than other groups of employees. Therefore, paying attention to managing work and family demands, with the aim of improving nurses’ quality of life, has great importance. Hence, designing a plan which defines the main components of work-family balance among various groups of hospital staff, including nurses, should be prioritized by Iran’s health system policy makers.

Keywords:

Work-family balance , Work-family conflict , Quality of life , Nurse , Stress , تعادل کار - خانواده , تضاد کار- خانواده , کیفیت زندگی , پرستار , استرس