Workaholism and work-family interaction among emergency and critical care nurses

Abstract

Objectives: Investigating the prevalence of workaholism as well as the relationship between work-family interaction among emergency and critical care nurses.

Research methodology/design: A quantitative cross-sectional study.

Setting: A total of 219 nurses took part in the Dutch Work Addiction Scale (DUWAS-10) and the Survey Work-Home Interaction Nijmegen (SWING), which included socio-demographic and occupational question. Data was gathered in Spain between June and September 2019.

Results: Workaholism was found to be prevalent in 28.3% of the participants. In all four categories, workaholism was statistically connected to work-home interaction, with workaholics having higher means than non-workaholics. Perceived work stress was related to workaholism (p =.036). In the Work Excessively dimension, female nurses had significantly higher mean scores (M = 2.26) than their male counterparts (M = 1,88). In addition, in the Negative Work-Home Interaction (M = 2.04), the global mean scores were higher than in the Negative Home-Work Interaction (M = 1.34), indicating conflict and a negative impact of work on the family.

Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstratedthe necessity of taking into account demands and resources from both the work and home domains since it has been shown that both have an impact on one other. Furthermore, given the vital responsibilities that emergency and critical care nurses play in the health care system, our findings suggest that occupational health treatments should be used to identify those working profiles that are particularly at risk.

Keywords: Emergency department; Intensive care unit; Nursing; Work-family interaction; Workaholism.