Assessment of Work-Life Balance, Job Addiction and Mental Health Status of Practicing Nigerian Nurses

Abstract

This study examined the work-life balance, job addiction and mental health status of nurses serving in Osun State, Nigeria. Six hundred and fifty questionnaires were sent out, response rate was 69.2% (450) and three hundred and fifty-seven (55%) (357) were valid. Hence, a total number   of three hundred and fifty-seven (357) nurses made up of male (17.9%) and female (82.1%) was purposively selected from various hospitals in Osun State and responded to the Work-life balance scale (WLB), Work addiction inventory (WAI) and Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ). Descriptive statistics (frequency count and percentages) were used to describe participants’ demographic characteristics, while inferential statistics (simple linear regression and Pearson moment correlation analysis) were used to test the hypotheses.The prevalence of work-life balance was 30% of pathological level, job addiction at 14.8%, disease conviction 30%,irritability 50.7%, general hypochondriasis 39.5%,somatic perception 31.9%,affective disturbance 42.6%, affective inhibition 33.6%, denial problem 31.7% and general illness reaction 47.1%. Work-life balance was observed to significantly predict illness behavior and job addiction significantly predicts illness behavior of nurses serving in Osun state. Based on the findings, it is recommended that a healthy work-life balance should be encouraged among nurses and stress coping skills be taught in other to ensure a positive mental health status.

Keywords: Work-life balance, job addiction, nurses and mental health.