The Quality of Work-life among Intensive Care Unit Nurses at Governmental Hospitals in Gaza Strip

Objective: The overall aim of this study is to assess the quality of work-life among nurses working in ICU departments at governmental hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

Methods: The researcher used a quantitative cross-sectional descriptive design. The population of the study consisted of all ICU nurses working at 5 Governmental Hospitals in the Gaza Strip/Palestine. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 102 nurses which was developed by the researcher, out of which (88.6%) responded, data was analyzed by using the statistical package of social science version 23 using descriptive statistics, means, standard deviation onesample t-test, and independent t-test. The validity of the questionnaire was tested and the total instrument reliability test (Cronbach’s Alpha) gave a score of 0.924 and it is considered a high score.

Results: The results of the study showed, about two-thirds of the participants (75.5%) were married, and the respondents' age was between 21 and 50 years and the highest number of nurses 50 (49.0%) aged 30-39 years, and the nurses had bachelor (85.3%) while (9.8%) had mastered. The males represented (76.5%) of the participants and their years of experience in ICU were between 1 and 15 years. And the results of this study showed that the overall level of work-life domains was moderate (mean=3.31, S.D. =0.48) with total relative weight (66.2%), and the total weight for each domain as following job autonomy domain gets the first rank followed by job satisfaction followed by staff retention, and last rank domain was work environment with relative weight as follow (72.0%), (69.4%), (63.5%) and (62.5%). Also result showed statistically significant differences between nurses' responses regarding gender, female nurses have higher mean in quality of worklife domains compared to males, while no statistically significant differences between the quality of work-life domains with qualification, job title, marital status and Experience years in ICU.

Conclusion: As QWL has an important impact on attracting and retaining employees, it is necessary to pay more attention to the nurses' QWL and its affecting fact ors. The policy makers should develop strategies for improving the nurses' QWL, so that, nurses will be able to perform better care for their patients. This research provides an initial step in understanding the work-life of ICU nurses at governmental hospitals in GS.

Author(s): Jabari MA and Salah M

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