Is there any relationship between role stressors, job tasks, and job satisfaction among Health Surveillance Assistants in Malawi? A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) are community-based health workers in Malawi, responsible for health services delivery at the community level. They are reported to be overloaded in their work, and anecdotal evidence suggests they are stressed. The purpose of this study was to explore the role stressors among the HSAs with the view to identify factors for role stressors and suggest some measures for the effective management of the HSAs to alleviate the problem of role stressors. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design and multistage stage sampling were used in this study. Data were collected from 430 HSAs from the districts of Mangochi, Lilongwe and Mzimba. A self-administered questionnaire was hand delivered to a total of 455 HSAs with a response rate of 94.5%. The data collected were analyzed with the aid of the computer software package Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. Statistics used for the analysis included: Mean, Standard Deviation, correlations and principal component analysis (PCA). Results: The key findings of this study are that role ambiguity ( r = -.238, P< 0.001) and role overload ( r =-.159, P< 0.01) were significantly negatively related to job satisfaction, while role conflict ( r = -.004, P= 0.472) was insignificantly related to job satisfaction. Additionally, the HSAs curative role was negatively related to role ambiguity ( r = -.108, P= 0.013) and positively related to role conflict ( r = .118, P= 0.008) and role overload ( r = .105, P= 0.015) while the HSAs overall preventive task was positively related to role overload. Conclusion: Since the HSAs clinical tasks were significantly related to all role stressors there is need by the government of Malawi to design strategies to control the role stressors to ensure increased job performance and job satisfaction among HSAs. Keywords : Relationship, role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, job satisfaction, role stressors