Employee wellbeing in healthcare is reflected in patient satisfaction, and a new study found that a heavy workload, even positive challenges such as learning new things are experienced as increased stress.
Researchers from the Department of Psychology at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland explored how the staff of a healthcare district experienced increasing job demands, and how wellbeing at work was linked to these demands. The study also clarified whether the demands on employees were reflected in patient satisfaction.
More than a thousand employees took part in the study and evaluated their experiences in a survey measuring intensified job demands, work exhaustion, and work engagement. Additionally, nearly a thousand patients of the healthcare district evaluated their treatment by the healthcare staff.
In line with expectations, healthcare staff’s experiences of greater time pressure and workload were associated with greater exhaustion. An especially high risk of exhaustion was seen in those working in emergency care and nurses.
Additionally, experience of increased job planning demands shared by the working community was associated with greater exhaustion and lower customer satisfaction. This was particularly evident in the staff of leadership services.
“A surprising observation was that none of the intensification demands was positively connected with work engagement,” said Senior Lecturer Mari Huhtala. “In the light of previous studies, employees may find some demands such as learning new things positive challenges, especially when the demands are reasonable. However, this was not the case with the studied healthcare employees. It is possible the general workload in healthcare has led to these positive challenges being experienced as additional stress as well.”
Research data for the study were collected using an electronic survey in the third quarter of 2019. The study will continue in the third quarter of 2021 with the collection of follow-up data.
Source: University of Jyväskylä
Journal information: Huhtala, M., et al. (2021) Intensified job demands in healthcare and their consequences for employee well‐being and patient satisfaction: A multilevel approach. Journal of Advanced Nursing. doi.org/10.1111/jan.14861.
