Satisfaction Levels and Factors Influencing Work-Life Balance among Married Female Nurses

Abstract

A self-rating questionnaire survey was administered to 632 married female nurses working in 46 hospitals with 200 beds or more in the Kanto district, aiming to identify the satisfaction levels in work life balance (WLB) and the factors influencing the levels of satisfaction. We used chi-square and Mann-Whitney U tests to analyze the data.

The analyses showed that following factors influence the WLB satisfaction levels : “work assignment categories”, “length of overwork”, “exercise habits”, “communication in the family”, “participation in workshops”, “role models”, “goals”, “ability to pursue career plans”, “motivation to remain in nursing”, “institutional arrangements”, and with subscales for “job satisfaction” (professional position, payment, the nurse management, relationship with physicians and nurses, mutual relations among nurses, professional autonomy and the nursing assignments), “subjective feelings of happiness”, “social support of the workplace” of the Job Stress Questionnaire and subscales for these (support from superiors, support from colleagues, and overall social support at the workplace), and “degree of mental health”.

It was identified that the WLB satisfaction levels can be determined from the question, “Are you Satisfied with WLB?” and its answers, “Satisfied” or “Not Satisfied”. The findings suggest that having exercise habits, communication in the family, role models, ability to pursue career plans, and accessing social resources are important for satisfaction with WLB. It is also important for nurse managers to make efforts to improve the social support at the workplaces as well as the job satisfaction as the findings suggest that these two strongly influence the WLB satisfaction level.