Family-Friendly Workplace Policies, Work-Family Conflict and Workers' Health : A Study in Nurses
Date Issued
2012
Date
2012
Author(s)
Chuang, Chu-Han
Abstract
Results from surveys conducted by the government indicated that work-family conflict has substantial effects on health of working women. Among other approaches, family-friendly workplace policies have been adopted in attempt to reduce work-family conflict. In recent years, heavy workloads and related health problems among nurses have been major public health concerns in Taiwan. Because of heavy work demands, shift-work and the dominance of young female workers in the nurising workforce, the problem of work-family conflict seemed to be more severe in nurses than in occupation groups.
The aims of this study were to explore the distribution of work and health condition, to examine the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of a work-family conflict scale, to explore relations between work-family conflict and health, and to understand the awareness and utilization of benefits provided by family-friendly workplace policies among nurses.
Study subjects of this questionnaire survey were recruited from participants of the EPInet (a reporting system for needle stick injuries of nurses), who were female and worked in Taipei city, New Taipei city and Keelung city. In addition, students of two on-job graduate programs were invited to participate. The survey was conducted during the time period from March 1st to April 30th in 2012. Survey was carried out with convenience sampling method. A total of 465 valid questionnaires were collected.
Findings of this study indicated that the scale of work-family conflict had sufficient reliability and validity. Secondly, as compared to the nationally representative sample of female employees, nurses in our study reported longer working hours, higher work demands, lower workplace justice, higher burnout experience and poorer self-reported health. Moreover, nurses in Taiwan had higher levels of work-to-family conflict and greater intention to leave the nursing career as compared to their European counterparts. Furthermore, the levels of work-family conflict were significantly related with poor health and greater intention to leave. Finally, findings of this study showed that a great proportion of nurses lacked of knowledge of the family-friendly workplace policies, and also lacked of opportunity to utilize benefits as stipulated by regulations.
To reduce work-family conflict and to improve health status among nurses, we suggest that the awareness of family-friendly workplace policies should be enhanced and the utilization of related benefits should be improved.
Subjects
Work-family conflict
family-friendly workplace policies
health
intention to leave
nurse
Type
thesis
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