Analysis of job-share as a process of change

Impact of work-life imbalance on job satisfaction and quality of life among hospital nurses in Japan

This study investigated the status of work-life imbalance among hospital nurses in Japan and impact of work-life imbalance on job satisfaction and quality of life. A cross-sectional survey of 1,202 nurses (81% response rate) was conducted in three Japanese acute care hospitals. Participants were divided into four groups for actual work-life balance (Group A: 50/50, including other lower working proportion groups [e.g., 40/50]; Group B: 60/40; Group C: 70/30; and Group D: 80/20, including other higher working proportion groups [e.g., 90/10]). We also asked participants about desired work-life balance, and private and work-related perspectives. Satisfactions (job, private life, and work-life balance), quality of life, and stress-coping ability were also measured. All data were compared among the four groups. Most nurses sensed that they had a greater proportion of working life than private life, and had a work-life imbalance. Actual WLB did not fit compared to desired WLB. When the actual working proportion greatly exceeds the private life proportion, nurses' health could be in danger, and they may resign due to lower job satisfaction and QOL. Simultaneous progress by both management and individual nurses is necessary to improve work-life imbalance.

The implementation and evaluation of a job-share

The Department of Health has acknowledged that the quality of health care delivery within the National Health Service (NHS) is closely associated with the quality of the employment practices in operation within the trusts. It is suggested that: ‘we will not get the best for patients unless we develop more family-friendly employment policies. They are essential to allow the NHS to make the best possible use of our resources as well as increasing the attractiveness of the NHS as an employer’ (NHS Consortium, 1998). Job sharing is an ideal way of fulfiling this proposal. This article reports on the implementation and evaluation of a recently introduced job-share in the Cornwall Macmillan Service. The authors conclude that job sharing can be successfully introduced in practice and that it may provide a valuable means of addressing some of the current manpower shortages within the NHS.