The Impact of Job Stress and Work-Life Balance among Indian Nurses: A Correlational Study ()
1. Introduction
Nurses are the backbone of the Heath Care Sector, so it is very important to understand, study their hardships and find solutions to them. According to last year’s report of World Economic Forum on the level of experienced job stress, it shows that 43% of employees of more than 100 countries experience job stress for most of the day which has increased from 38% in 2019 [1]. According to the survey conducted by WHO on the World Mental Health Day 2021, based on the responses from 3.881 professionals, the findings revealed that more than half of India’s (55%) employed professionals are feeling stressed at work as well-being measures have become not easily accessible for them, about 34% revealed among all other stressors the major stressor was “balancing work with personal needs [2]”.
Work Life Balance can basically understand as the harmony between work and non-work aspects of life. And it becomes very important for all the working professionals to maintain a healthy and sustainable life [3]. Since ancient times, “stress” as a word has been used to denote a lot of emotions like suppression, sorrow, adversity, and discomfort but since the 19th century, stress has basically been defined as, “to have the meaning of a strong influence exerted on a person or on a physical object”. It is actually derived from “stringere” which is the Latin word that means to “draw tight” [4].
In today’s modern era every Indian family has most of its female member working in a salaried profession and with that they also have to cater to their personal and social commitments. So increased stress levels at work will severely impact their work life balance [5]. The Job profile of all the Health Care professionals is very exhaustive and demanding. It demands long working hours which lead to a lot of stress and less flexibility in work eventually leading to work life balance issues and furthermore reducing the job satisfaction and well-being of the professional working [6]. Developing country like India and along with other countries of the world are facing a shortage of such professionals which makes the current scenario a lot more alarming as it makes the situation more and more difficult for the current Heath Care professionals as they have to work more than their actual limits and exert themselves so much leading to increase in job stress which results in increase in the issues of Work Life Balance [6].
Nurses hold a very important place in the Health Care Sector. Increase in their job stress can have a severe impact on the quality of care they provide to the patients and the assistance they provide to the doctors and surgeons and furthermore it will also affect their family members at large. If the efficiency of the nurses goes down because of increased job stress then it makes the Health Care Sector collapse, which further makes all the people visiting the hospitals at risk [7].
Furthermore, such job stress also leads to a bigger issue of work-family conflict which basically refers to a type of conflict that a person faces when he/she is unable to balance the roles between their work and personal life. It further leads to feelings of reduced job satisfaction, and desires to leave job and in severity may lead to symptoms of Depression [3]. If the nurses have more work life balance issues, then it will lead to more work and family conflicts which will further add more stress to them [8] [9].
Therefore, understanding the relationship between job stress and work life balance becomes more and more important among nurses in order to improve their quality of work as well as increase their job satisfaction and maintain their personal needs. This paper aims to explore the above discussed issue by investigating whether there is any correlation between job stress and work life balance and if there is an increase in the level of job stress, will it reduce the level of work life balance or not? To do so, in the next section, the problem statement and the central idea of their entire research are described. Then in the section of “Review of Literature” a review is done of some of the previous research studies done in the same area which will help to build the foundation of this research and help to develop the hypothesis which will be described in the later sections. The Quantitative study analysis will be then done and the results and the conclusion drawn from it will be further discussed at the end of this paper.
2. Aim
In ancient times, the role that women had in the society was primarily to provide care and to be a house keeper, but in the current modern era the scenario has changed completely. Now along with the male members of the family and house they are also supposed to go out of the house and work and help the family with the finances. In today’s 21st century where women empowerment is taking on a very large scale, they are provided with proper education and corresponding employment opportunities to become an earner of the house. But even after so much advancement in the world. In many countries like India even after doing all the above-described work in a professional setting, the main goal for women still remains to cater to the family and personal needs along with their work commitment. They are expected to shift their very fast and efficiently from a working professional to a homemaker everyday then showcase their skills in the type of setting there are in and make it flourish [5].
As per their educational qualifications and skills they choose their career. One of the most tough as well as demanding one being a working professional in the Health Care Sector. Basically, we can understand hospital as a place where the Health Care Sector provides all its services so its fully service oriented [5]. The success and well-being of this sector depends a lot on the work done by the Nurses. The quality of care and service that people expect from the hospitals are mainly provided by the nurses. The level of stress nurses has to face because of extended working hours, compulsory overtime, chances of getting deceased etc increases their job stress and which ends up creating role conflicts and issues of work life balance [10]. Their poor performance at their work place creates a risk for the patients and will negatively impact the hospital at large. So, it becomes very important to do a research study on to find out whether really increased amount of job stress has the potential to reduce the work life balance of nurses. It will then help the hospital authorities to look into this matter and take proper steps in order to help the nurse cater this problem as well as increase their job satisfaction and reduce the shortage that has been created in India and some other parts of the world and reduce the attrition rate of nurses and so it may lead to the success of the hospitals and the Health Care Sector at large [5].
On a personal and social level, when the nurses are under lot of job stress it affects their social life adversely because it makes it difficult for them to maintain healthy relationships with their family and friends leading to social isolation and reduction in social support it makes them more vulnerable to depression [11].
2.1. Theme: Job Stress and Work Life Balance
In Nursing and Health Professions Job Stress can be defined as, “The Strain experienced in the workplace due to factors such as high demands and low control, leading to increased arterial stiffness and being in an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease” [12]. The role that nurses that earlier had been of a health care provider has now expanded from a health educator, diagnostic assistant, post care supporter, Health advisor, Physician’s Assistant, Operation Theatre Assistant, Health Counsellor, Taking Follow ups, Health promoter, Administrator, Health researcher, Provide appropriate reassurance to patients and family members, Health Supervisor, Maintenance of Health Reports, Collection of Records & Documents. There is a triangular regular relationship between Work and family, Life Satisfaction and Job satisfaction, it suggests that the if it generates positive waves from it increases the efficiency and well-being of the professional [13].
The kind of stress that nurses that face at their workplace can be understood as that of being situational because they feel frightened and worried because the situation is not in their control when the patients, they are dealing with are of very severe nature resulting in conflicts errors in their work and further losing their confidence [14]. At that time nurses feel very powerless as its not under their control to change anything in the situation with limited resources and lack of appropriate support from the authorities [4]. The main causes that primarily look for such amount of stress can be environmental factors of economic, political, and technological uncertainty, individual factors of family, financial, and personality factor and finally the organizational factor of task demands, role demands, interpersonal demands, organizational structure, and organizational leadership [10].
Work Stress among nursing professionals has severe consequences of job dissatisfaction, burn out, absenteeism, turnover, and stress-related illness which reduces their job performance and puts the patients’ lives at risk [4]. In the life of a nurse, work life balance plays a significantly important role because they are the ones in the Health Care Sector who has the prime responsibility for providing quality care services to the patients. One of the most primary consequences that results due to low work life balance and high job stress is of work-family conflict [3]. Even nurses have important responsibilities at their home just like their workplace of child rearing and elder care which also require a lot of care and energy, they have to continuously juggle between their work and family life [5].
Work Stress negatively affects the involvement with family and results in exhaustion and fatigue which eventually influences their motivation levels, as they are required to work under fixed schedules and in shifts which could result in more and more work-family conflicts [6]. When the nurses are stuck in such dual role conflicts creating an imbalance in their work and family life leading wastage of time and energy resources creating an increase in anxiety, dissatisfaction and conflicts [10].
Work-family life balance is very important to increase the professionalism of the nurses and such balance has reduced nurses’ intention to leave the organization. Nurses who are young parents may have strong economic or career incentives of work and may require a lot more work life balance than senior nurses [15]. When there is increase in the level of Work Life Balance in the nurses it would result in improvement in Job performance and Job Satisfaction and it would further help to foster more organizational commitment in the long run [6] [16]. It is mostly believed that the more a professional is involved in his job, it can lead to higher work-family conflict which eventually leads to increase job burnout, low satisfaction and reduced commitment. And the more a professional is occupied the high work family conflict it will reduce the balance between work and personal life. The professionals who are work-oriented they try to make accommodations that meet their needs for allowing for career enrichment whereas the professionals who are family-oriented will try to seek accommodations to minimize conflicts with family requirements [16].
Finally, it was found that there is a negative correlation between work life balance and work stress which implies that if the work-life balance is high, then there will be lo work stress. But when there is low work-life balance, then there is high work stress [4]. If there is low work life balance, it is related to low job satisfaction, high turnover intentions, exhaustion, and deterioration of health. In today’s era the situation has become very crucial and worrisome due to globalization and there is a current need in all human areas to get a proper and effective solution for the same [17].
2.2. Objectives of the Study
The following are the objectives for the study:
a) To explore the levels of job stress and work life balance issues among nurses;
b) Conduct a correlational study among Indian nurses through quantitative study method, to analyse the relationship between Job Stress and Work Life Balance;
c) To understand the impact of job stress on personal as well as professional life and mental health;
d) To help and give suggestions to the experts for them to develop strategies and policies to reduce job stress and improve the quality of work life balance among nurses.
2.3. Scope of the Study
This study has its emphasis on the correlation between Job Stress and Work Life Balance of Nurses in India. The researcher has tried to make a genuine attempt to explore the relationship between Job Stress and Work Life Balance of Working Nurses. The study is expected to identify the level of correlation between Job Stress and Work Life Balance among Nursing Professionals of India. This research is mainly focused on if at all High Job Stress could reduce the Work Life Balance of Nurses.
3. Method
This study is only based on primary data collected from the sample population. The primary data was collected in a hybrid mode through 2 questionnaires for both the variables to gauge their levels of Job Stress and Work Life Balance along with few questions of demographics, by the Nursing Professionals and not the students studying Nursing in India (Primarily Ahmedabad City). A total of 163 samples were collected in a from Reputed hospitals of India. Their age ranged from 20 - 68 years. The data was collected through the Non-Probability Sampling Methods. Under this, Convenient Sampling and Snow Ball Technique which was used to collect data due to less accessibility to clinical settings such as hospitals and clinics to collect data from the nurses and limited time period given to collect data, this sampling method was considered to be the most relevant to use to collect data over a period of 15 days. The samples are divided into categories based on their Gender (Male & Female) and Age groups (20 - 68). And they can also be further categorized in terms of their Working Hours, Overtime, Weekly offs and Sleeping Hours. The hospitals from which the nurses were selected were predecided using the Snowball Technique and to a certain extent in some circumstances it was randomized too.
For the purpose of the study, the ‘Questionnaire for Self-Assessing Your Work-Life Balance’ by Neal Whitten and the ‘Workplace Stress Survey’ developed by the American Institute of Stress were used. The Global Scores on both the questionnaires were used to identify the correlations between the variables. The objective of the research was well explained to the subjects before the administration.
3.1. Description of the Tools
1) Questionnaire for Self-Assessing Your Work Life Balance: It was developed by Neal Whitten along with his partnership with Velociteach. It contains 45 items measuring the variable on 6-point scale from 0-5. The questionnaire does not have any sub scales to it, so the global scores are to be calculated to identify the level of Work Life balance [18]-[24].
2) Workplace Stress Survey: It was developed by the American Institute of Stress. It contains 10 items measuring the variable on 10-point scale from 1-10. The questionnaire does not have sub scales to it, so the global scores are to be calculated to identify the level of Stress [25]-[33].
3.2. Hypotheses
To analyse if there is correlation and interaction between Job Stress and Work Life Balance among Indian nurses, by taking the literature review and objectives of the study as the foundation the following hypotheses are proposed:
1) H0—There is no significant difference in the Levels of Job Stress & Work Life Balance based on Gender.
H1—There is significant difference in the Levels of Job Stress & Work Life Balance based on Gender.
2) H0—There is no significant difference in the Levels of Job Stress & Work Life Balance based on the Number of Working Hours.
H1—There is significant difference in the Levels of Job Stress & Work Life Balance based on the Number of Working Hours.
3) H0—There is no significant difference in the Levels of Job Stress & Work Life Balance across different Age Groups.
H1—There is significant difference in the Levels of Job Stress & Work Life Balance across different Age Groups.
4) H0—There is no significant relationship between the Impact of Job Stress and Work Life Balance among Indian Nurses.
H1—There is significant relationship between the Impact of Job Stress and Work Life Balance among Indian Nurses.
NOTE: In order to maintain the normality of the collected data, the sample count was reduced from 163 to 150.
4. Results and Discussion
The data of 150 samples of were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS (Version 16.0) Statistical Program, the principal component of the anaylsis was Correlation between the variables using Pearson Coefficient (r) and the demographics of Gender, Age Groups and No of Working Hours were analayzed using T test (t) for 2 independent means (Unpaired) for the difference between means to gauge the significance level.
To maintain the normal distribution of the data The Shapiro Wilk Test was used and the outliers and extreme values were removed and the resutls for the same are shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Test of normality.
|
Shapiro-Wilk Test |
|
Statistic |
df |
Sig. |
Work life balance |
0.982 |
150 |
0.053 |
Job stress |
0.990 |
150 |
0.372 |
The Shapiro Wilk test uses a null hypothesis that ‘the data is normally distributed’ and the alternate hypothesis of ‘the data is not normally distributed’, it is used to check if the data collected is normally distrubuted based on the P-Value (Sig.) that we get it shows along with the Level of Significance (0.05) predecided by the researcher. The results show that for both the variables—Work life Balance (0.053) and Job Stress (0.372) The P Value (Sig.) is more than the Level of Significance (0.05) so the alternate hypothesis will be rejected and the null hypothesis will be accepted from that it can be concluded that the data collected for the study is normally distributed. So Parametric Statistics like Pearson Coefficient for Correlation and T-Test of 2 independent means for the difference between means can be used for further data analysis.
Table 2 represents the descriptive statistics of the study, it shows that the Central Tendency is calculated on the Mean Value (X−) is 3.10 and 54.35 which depicts significant difference between both the Means. And the Standard Deviation (σ) which .603 and 15.839 which depicts the based on the values (.603 and 15.839) the data on an average will deviate from the Central Tendency.
Table 2. Descriptive statistics for job stress & work-life balance.
|
N |
Minimum |
Maximum |
Mean |
Std. Deviation |
Work Life Balance |
150 |
2 |
5 |
3.10 |
0.603 |
Job Stress |
150 |
18 |
100 |
54.35 |
15.839 |
Valid N (listwise) |
150 |
|
|
|
|
Using the T-Test for 2 independent means, the analysis for both the variables was done based on their Gender and for which the results are shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Descriptive statistics for the variables based on gender.
|
Female |
Male |
Mean |
M1—3.0 |
M2—54.2 |
M1—3.2 |
M2—53.5 |
Observations |
111.0 |
111.0 |
39.0 |
39.0 |
Hypothesized Mean Difference |
0.0 |
|
0.0 |
|
df |
220.0 |
|
76.0 |
|
t value |
−30.6 |
|
−18.2 |
|
P-value |
0.0 |
|
0.0 |
|
M1—Mean for work life balance, M2—Mean for job stress. The P-value is < 0.00001. The result is significant at P < 0.05.
An Unpaired T-Test was conducted to compare the scores of the variables—Job Stress and Work Life Balance where the nurses were divided based on their Gender (Male & Female), there is a significant difference as the P Value (0.0) is less than the level of significance (0.05) between the means of the both the variables among both the Genders. The results suggest that there is negligible difference between the levels of Job Stress faced by Males (53.5) and Females (54.2) as well as the levels of Work Life Balance (3.2, 3.0). So, it is found that there are no differences in the levels of Job Stress and Work Life Balance on the basis of the individual’s Gender and we can accept the null hypothesis (“There is no significant difference in the Levels of Job Stress & Work Life Balance based on Gender) and reject the alternative hypothesis.
Using the T-Test for 2 independent means, the analysis of the both the variables was done as per their No. of Working Hours and the results are shown in Table 4.
Table 4. Number of working hours of indian nurses.
|
Less than 8 Hours |
8 Hours |
More than 8 hours |
Mean |
M1—3.2 |
M2—54.9 |
M1—2.7 |
M2—53.4 |
M1—3.0 |
M2—54.2 |
Observations |
18.0 |
18.0 |
18.0 |
43.0 |
89.0 |
89.0 |
Hypothesized Mean Difference |
0.0 |
|
0.0 |
|
0.0 |
|
df |
34.0 |
|
59.0 |
|
176.0 |
|
t value |
−10.5 |
|
−12.3 |
|
−28.4 |
|
P-value |
0.0 |
|
0.0 |
|
0.0 |
|
M1—Mean for work life balance, M2—Mean for job stress. The P-value is < 0.00001. The result is significant at P < 0.05.
An Unpaired T-Test was conducted to compare the scores of the variables—Job Stress and Work Life Balance where the nurses were divided on the basis of the number of hours, they are working their hospital/organization. They were broadly categorized as the people of who work for less than 8 hours, For exactly 8 hours and more than 8 hours. There is significant difference as the P Value is less than the level of Significance (0.05). The results suggest that irrespective of the number of hours the nurses are working there is negligible difference in their levels of Job Stress (54.9, 53.4 & 54.2), whereas as compared to the nurses who work for either less than 8 hours (3.2) or more than 8 hours (3.0) they have low work life balance but those nurses who work for exactly 8 hours (2.7) their work life balance was a little bit lower. So, it is found that the number of hours a person works can affect his work life balance and we can accept the alternative hypothesis (“There is significant difference in the Levels of Job Stress & Work Life Balance based on the Number of Working Hours) and reject the null hypothesis.
Using the T-Test for 2 independent means, the analysis for both the variables was done according to their Age and the results for which are shown in Table 5.
An Unpaired T Test was conducted to compare the scores of the variables—Job Stress and Work Life Balance where the nurses were categorized on the basis of their Age. The Age Group that was formed were: 20 - 30 years, 30 - 40 years, 40 - 50 years and 50 - 60 years. There is significant difference as the P-Value (0.0) is less than the level of significance (0.05). The results suggest that the most amount of Job Stress is experienced by the nurses of the Age Group of 30 - 40 years (59.3) and there is very negligible amount of difference in the level of Job Stress among other Age Groups (51.9, 47.9 & 52.8). And there is very less difference in the level of Work Life Balance across all the Age Groups. So, it is found that as compared to the nurses of all the other Age Groups those of them who are in the Age group of 30 - 40 years comparatively experience more amount of Job Stress and we can accept the alternative hypothesis (“There is significant difference in the Levels of Job Stress & Work Life Balance based on the Number of Working Hours) and reject the null hypothesis.
Table 5. Age groups of nursing professionals.
|
20 - 30 Years |
30 - 40 Years |
40 - 50 Years |
50 - 60 Years |
Mean |
M1—3.0 |
M2—51.9 |
M1—3.1 |
M2—59.3 |
M1—3.1 |
M2—47.9 |
M1—3.1 |
M2—52.8 |
Observations |
63.0 |
63.0 |
54.0 |
54.0 |
23.0 |
23.0 |
10.0 |
10.0 |
Hypothesized Mean Difference |
0.0 |
|
0.0 |
|
0.0 |
|
0.0 |
|
df |
124.0 |
|
106.0 |
|
44.0 |
|
18.0 |
|
t value |
−22.0 |
|
−25.5 |
|
−11.5 |
|
−10.1 |
|
P-value |
0.0 |
|
0.0 |
|
0.0 |
|
0.0 |
|
M1—Mean for work life balance, M2—Mean for job stress. The P-value is < 0.00001. The result is significant at P < 0.05.
Using the Pearson Coefficient of Correlation (r), the correlation between the two variables of Job Stress and Work Life Balance was done and the results for same are shown in Table 6.
Table 6. Pearson’s Correlations (r).
|
|
Work Life Balance |
Job Stress |
Work Life Balance |
Pearson Correlation |
1 |
−0.364** |
Sig. (1-tailed) |
|
0.000 |
N |
150 |
150 |
Job Stress |
Pearson Correlation |
−0.364** |
1 |
Sig. (1-tailed) |
0.000 |
|
N |
150 |
150 |
Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (1-tailed). |
|
P-Value |
0.00000249 |
The P-value is < 0.00001. The result is significant at P < 0.05.
Based on the hypothesis framed, a correlation analysis was conducted, the above tables depict the results for the same. The results show that the value of correlation (r) = −0.364 which shows that there is negative correlation between Job Stress and Work Life Balance, which means that there is an opposite or inverse relationship between bit the variables. It suggests that when Job Stress will change in one direction then Work Life Balance of Nurses will change in opposite direction. The results are significant as the values are r = −0.364 and the P-value is 0.00000249 which is less than the level of significance (0.05). The results moderately suggest that an increase/decrease in the level of Job Stress in Nurses can result in an increase/decrease in the level of Work Life Balance of Nurses and vice versa. This study may help to indicate some causal relationship between Job Stress and Work Life Balance.
The results of this study are in line with the research study conducted by Andi Rezka Fadillah, Rezky Ariany Aras and Sri Wahyuni which found that there is a negative relationship between work stress and work life balance among nursing professionals (work-life balance has 8.6% effects on work stress among nurses). The results of the same study describes that a higher level of work-life balance leads to lower work stress among nurses [10].
This suggests that it has become very important to reduce job stress among nurse which will improve their communication with other health care providers, and it will lead to an increase in the positive feelings of nurses towards their workplace, enhance job satisfaction, promote retention, and prevent burnout [4]. Nurses often feel they have less time on hand for their children and family because their profession [5]. Such feelings make it difficult for them to balance their family and work life and be able to fulfil responsibilities on both the ends and which may lead to conflicts creating more stress for them as an add-on to the job stress they already experience.
If this difficulty of balancing work and family life continuous to increase among nurses then it can lead to a desire to leave the job, creating high job turnover and labour shortage creating a greater concern for the Health Care Sector [3]. Nurses have also realized that the more they are pressurized due to family responsibilities, as a result of which their career development has slowed down. And for the same they were in the favour of flexible work arrangements that should be provided to all the working professionals in order to manage their household and office responsibilities [5].
The current study found that there are no gender differences when it comes to job stress and work life balance but it found that working for more than or less than an official amount of time for the job life 8 hours can have some impact on the level of job stress and work life balance. And that the nurses who are in the age group of 30 - 40 years of age experience the most amount of job stress leading to more issues in their work life balance. One reason for this can be of this age being of stabilising the career as well as starting their own families which could easily create more conflicts in the initial years creating more and more stress along with the job stress.
Job satisfaction has a positive relationship with flexible working hours and supportive supervision towards job performance. A proper balance of work and family will improve the nurses job satisfaction which will increase their job performance and productivity [6]. For Customers’ satisfaction it is very important that authorities of the organization increase the satisfaction of the employees in order to succeed [16].
Nurses play a very important role in the society by providing their services to the doctors and the patients so it becomes utmost important to understand their difficulties and help them to cater and solve these problems so that they are satisfied and contended by their own lives and provide the best care they can to their patients and help the doctors.
4.1. Conclusion
In the Health Care Sector context of Nurses, this research study provides a valuable insight into the difficulties that nurses face in their lives among all the problems, the most crucial being the one of Job Stress and its negative effect on their Work Life Balance. Nurses feel their life to be a juggling ring where they have to crack an effective balance between their Work and Family life. If they are unable to do so, it creates a lot of stress adding to the job stress already present. The Nurses irrespective of their Age and Gender have to fulfil both their professional as well as personal responsibilities.
According to the Analysis of the study, it was found that there exists a moderate negative correlation between Job Stress and Work Life Balance among Indian Nurses. It was found that the highest job stress was found in the age group of nurses aged 30 - 40. This scenario has emerged as a direct result of several pressing factors: increased workloads, excessively long work shifts, and family commitments that many individuals face at this stage of life. Furthermore, there are serious concerns about career progression and stability, coupled with financial pressures and insufficient support from the organization, despite the unwavering commitment of employees. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly exacerbated the workload for all nurses. It is imperative that these issues be addressed promptly and effectively [34]. It depicts that if there is higher Job Stress, it can lead to lower Work Life Balance and if there is lower Job Stress, it can lead to higher Work Life Balance. It was also found that there is no difference or very less difference in the level of Job Stress and Work Life Balance in terms of Gender, Age and Number of Working Hours. It is very important to address this issue because if this is not, it can lead to Job Dissatisfaction, high turnover rate and decrease in the quality of work among the nurses. If this issue is solved, it will lead to more job satisfaction and increase in the job performance of nurses leading the hospital to succeed and making the Health Care Sector more effective. This study can indicate a causal relationship between Job Stress and Work life balance but it cannot prove it, so further an experimental study can be conducted.
4.2. Suggestions
For every single individual, it is very essential to have a balance between their Work and Family Life, but it varies from person to person and it also takes a lot of efforts and time to reach at that stage. But it is very important to have it at any cost for everyone especially for the nurses. Based on the results of the study some of the suggestions which can be drawn are as follows:
Since in the hospital settings most of the nurses in India are females, and they have to fulfil a lot responsibilities at home as well along with work so they can be given the benefit of emergency leaves, day offs if required and flexible working hours for them to manage both the duties effectively but this has to be done very firmly and alertly keeping in mind India as a country lacks comprehensive policies to maintain regulatory in the framework within the organizations and the professional requirements also may sometimes make it difficult for the hospitals to provide flexible hours to nurses during heavy patient traffic [35] [36].
Most of the nurses have small children and it becomes very difficult for them to take care them with work so the hospitals should provide child care facilities to them when they are at work along with building the required infrastructure with it and keeping trained child care professionals so that nurses can work without any worry for the safety of their children [37] [38].
In order to reduce the Job Stress, they are facing the hospitals should give them certain amount of autonomy to them while they work and should time to time facilitate them for their relentless efforts so that they feel included and respected in the organization.
The hospitals should take time to time surveys on the levels of Job Stress and Work Life balance in order to gauge the actual scenario and take effective steps to cater to it.
Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my university Pandit Deendayal Energy University, My Dean Dr. Ritu Sharma and My Director Dr. Nigam Dave and my Professor Dr. Prateek Singh for their guidance and support through the study. Their knowledge and expertise helped me to conduct this study smoothly and gain effective outcomes from it. Furthermore, I would like to thank all my family and friends for their support. Last but not the least, I would like to thank all the nurses for their immense participation to make this study successful and effective with its rich data and results.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest.