Impact of work and personal life conciliation problems on healthcare workers

Work life balance, a significant issue in the healthcare sector, recognizes that individuals are engaged in several tasks in their private and professional lives. Literature highlights the harmful consequences of conflicts between personal and professional life for organizations and workers. This study investigates the prevalence of work life balance problems and presence of psychosocial work factors and analyzes their impact on health complaints in the Portuguese healthcare sector. A cross-sectional study of 640 healthcare professionals was conducted using two data collection instruments: INSAT (Inquerito Saude e Trabalho), a health and work survey to assess psychosocial work factors, and the Portuguese version of the Nottingham Health Profile that evaluates the subjective physical, emotional, and social aspects of health. The data show that healthcare professionals have a very high prevalence of work life balance problems and are exposed to several psychosocial risk factors including high demands and work intensity, working hours, emotional demands, and work characteristics. These experiences are related to professionals' health revealing a state of emotional vulnerability. Thus, Portuguese health organizations should formulate appropriate workplace policy to reduce work life conflict and enable employees to be more effective in their work and other roles.

Automated summary

This study investigates the prevalence of work life balance problems and psychosocial work factors in the Portuguese healthcare sector, and their impact on health complaints. The data reveals a high prevalence of work life balance problems among healthcare professionals and their exposure to various psychosocial risk factors, which are related to health issues.