Work-Life Balance in Nurses

Objectives: Nursing is one of the most stressful professions, and nurses need to have a work-life balance. This article assesses the job stress of nurses and identifies ways to improve the work-life balance.
Methods: A study was conducted on nurses working in hospitals of Ferozepur, Punjab, with the help of a demographic sheet and a structured questionnaire. All nurses not on long leave and willing to participate in the study were included in the study group.
Results: 50% of the nurses felt more pressurized due to family responsibilities, and their career development had slowed down. Most of them thought that their job left less time for their kids and husbands. 70% of them found it difficult to manage their household and office work if they had small kids. In case of conflict between household work and office work, 40% of nurses gave preference to household work.
Conclusion: Provision of childcare facilities, flexible working hours, adequate childcare leave, establishment of work-life balance cells, and formulationof human resource/leave policies can help achieve an optimum work-life balance amongst nurses, increase productivity at work and reduce attrition rate.

Keywords: Nurses, nursing profession, work-life balance, job stress, flexible working hours