Work-Family Conflict and Burnout in Healthcare: A Qualitative Study
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Work-family conflict and burnout in the healthcare industry are significant problems resulting in cognitive, physical, and emotional challenges for healthcare workers and dangerous consequences for patient care. Due to the work-family conflict and burnout they experience, many healthcare workers are leaving the industry altogether. Most studies on work-family conflict and burnout focus on the hospital setting. However, it is estimated that likely more than a million healthcare workers work in the private practice setting. Consequently, this study’s problem is that little is known about how the private practice healthcare setting affects employees’ work-family conflict and burnout. The purpose of this qualitative multicase study was to gain a clear understanding of the role that organizational resources and flexible work-life balance policies, specifically in the private practice environment, play in contributing to or mitigating work-family conflict and burnout. This study had nine participants at six different private practices. Coding data from the semistructured interviews helped the following themes to emerge: dedication/loyalty, understaffed practice, employer flexibility, lacking in policies and procedures, and substandard fringe benefits. The researcher evaluated the themes and research questions using the conservation of resources theory as a theoretical lens through which the role of resources was addressed. Benefits and labor data were also used to evaluate interview data. The major findings were that the participants’ private practices were understaffed and did not provide sufficient fringe benefits, which negatively impacted participants’ work-family conflict and burnout. However, the private practice setting offered great flexibility, which many participants felt outweighed the negative consequences of missing resources.
Author: Busick, Alison H.
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7034585503
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: