Work schedule flexibility is associated with emotional exhaustion among registered nurses in Swiss hospitals: A cross-sectional study

Background: Emotional exhaustion among healthcare workers is a widely investigated, well-recognized problem, the incidence of which has recently been linked to work environment factors, particularly work/family conflict. However, another environmental feature that may be equally influential, but that is more amenable to nurse manager action, remains less recognized: shift schedule flexibility. Objectives: This study's main purposes were to assess variations in work schedule flexibility between Swiss acute care hospital units, and to investigate associations between psychosocial work environment (e.g. work schedule flexibility) and self-reported emotional exhaustion among registered nurses. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of data collected for the multi-center observational cross-sectional Match(RN) study, which included a national sample of 23 hospitals and 1833 registered nurses across Switzerland. Results: Overall, self-reported work schedule flexibility among registered nurses was limited: 32% of participants reported little or no influence in planning their own shifts. Work schedule flexibility (beta -0.11; CI -0.16; -0.06) and perceived nurse manager ability (beta -0.30; CI -0.49; -0.10) were negatively related to self reported emotional exhaustion. Work-family conflict (beta 0.39; CI 0.33; 0.45) was positively correlated to emotional exhaustion. Conclusions: The study results indicate that managerial efforts to improve working environments, including special efforts to improve work schedule flexibility, might play an important role in promoting nurses' emotional health.