QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG NURSES IN PRIMARY HEALTHCARE CLINICS IN THE HEALTH DISTRICT OF PETALING, SELANGOR

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Background: Quality of life (QOL) can influence the productivity of organization employees. In healthcare, commitment towards patient care depends greatly on the QOL of nurses. This study aims to determine QOL among nurses and its associated factors.

Materials and Methods: A total of 322 nurses in the government healthcare clinics under the health district of Petaling participated in this cross-sectional study. The validated Malay version of WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire was used. Scores of the QOL domains were analyzed with SPSS 20.0 using descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA.

Result: All 322 respondents were females, with majority being Malays (87.6%) and under 40 years old (85.4%). More than half have worked for less than 10 years. Majority (86.0%) are attached to their current clinic for less than 10 years. About 1 in 10 reported to have chronic diseases. The highest and lowest mean score of domains were social relationship (Mean=71.3) and environmental (Mean= 63.7) respectively. Nurses who are older, non-Chinese, having more children, with longer working experience, and being in supervisory positions reported a better QOL. Significant association were observed between higher QOL for psychological (p=0.044) and environmental (p=0.015) domains with service years in current clinic, whereas presence of chronic diseases recorded a significant association with lower QOL in the physical (p=0.045) and overall (p=0.035) QOL domains.

Conclusion: This study provides vital impetus for policy makers in terms of optimizing work placement and prevention of chronic disease among staff to improve QOL of nurses. This will safeguard patient care and enhance organization performance.

Keywords: Nurse, healthcare staff, quality of life, primary healthcare clinic