A gender approach to work ability and its relationship to professional and domestic work hours among nursing personnel

Abstract

The association between working hours and work ability was examined in a cross sectional study of male (N=156) and female (N=1092) nurses in three public hospitals. Working hours were considered in terms of their professional and domestic hours per week and their combined impact; total work load. Logistic regression analysis showed a significant association between total work load and inadequate work ability index (WAI) for females only. Females reported a higher proportion of inadequate WAI, fewer professional work hours but longer domestic work hours. There were no significant differences in total work load by gender. The combination of professional and domestic work hours in females seemed to best explain their lower work ability. The findings suggest that investigations into female well-being need to consider their total work load. Our male sample may have lacked sufficient power to detect a relationship between working hours and work ability.

Working hours and health behaviour among nurses at public hospitals

“…Akin to the results shown by another study with nursing teams (8) , it was also observed that men worked more in relation to remunerated work, when compared to women. However, the total work hours of men is less, due to reduced responsibilities in domestic work as split between them.…”

“…Together with these factors, the prevalence of females in these professions (1,3,8) means a need to also weigh in the domestic workload and also its interaction with professional employment when assessing the impact that the working hours have on health, as shown in other studies (3,5,8) . However, when considering the work within the context of the nursing profession, it is important to stress that the influence of the long working hours affects not only the health of the nursing professionals but also the standard of the nursing care (1) .…”

“…In hospitals, the working hours are organised on a shift system, with 12 hours of continuous work and then either 36 or 60 hours off (3,5) . These working hours make it possible to fit in more than one professional employment, which is often reflected in extremely long and tiring professional working stints (5,8) .…”

Stress among nurses: an examination of salivary cortisol levels on work and day off

“…Studies have shown that female nurses' satisfaction at work is lower than that of male nurses (15) . In addition, women are more affected by the characteristics of a bad work (16) environment and feel the pressure to balance work and family life, caring for children and house work (17) , which can result in increased salivary cortisol levels when compared to men (18) .…”

“…In Brazil, it is common for nurses to work double shifts and receive low pay because of work shift scheduling (17) . When salivary cortisol levels are analyzed, the nurses who worked double shifts showed higher values on both work day and day off compared with nurses who had no other employment.…”