Care as a double duty: a secondary data analysis of nurses with care responsibilities at home [German]

Abstract

Background: Due to a high number of female and employed family caregivers it is hypothesized that also the proportion of nurses with private care responsibilities is high. Both, professional nursing and responsibilities as private caregiver are associated with high physical and psychological burden.
Objective: The objective was to investigate the extent of double burden of nurses with care responsibilities at home and possible associations with work- and health-related outcomes.
Method: The study is based on a secondary data analysis of the baseline data of the German sample of the Nurses’ Early Exit Study (NEXT-Study). Applying a case-control design, nurses with care responsibilities at home were matched to controls by a genetic propensity score algorithm. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to investigate the characteristics of the double duty and associations with work and health strain.
Results: 213 of 2,749 nurses had private care responsibilities of – on average – 7.4 hours per week. Nurses with care responsibilities at home were older, worked more often part-time, less often in night shifts and more frequently in nursing homes or ambulatory care services than the nurses without care responsibilities at home. Furthermore, lower work ability (p = 0.023) and a higher disability due to neck and back pain (p = 0.001) was found for nurses with private care responsibilities. Unexpectedly, no group differences were found for burnout, general health, job satisfaction, work-familiy and family work conflict.
Conclusion: Nurses with additional private care responsibilities should be recognised as a particular occupational target group for preventive measures considering physical risks. Our indications found for a potentially supportive psychological function of professional work among nurses with private caring obligations may constitute a challenge for work organisation in health care and for science.

More information

Identifiers

Catalogue record

Export record