Work Environment and Workload of Staff Nurses in Level 2 Hospitals at Cavite, Philippines

ABSTRACT

@#One of the greatest healthcare challenges for today's generation is the improvement of the nursing work environment. Despite the challenges brought by the unhealthy working environment and high workload demand, Filipino nurses stood up high in maintaining professionalism towards their work. The goal of this study is to determine the relationship between the work environment and the workload of staff nurses in level 2 hospitals in Cavite, Philippines. Quantitative non-experimental descriptive correlational design was used, and the standardized questionnaires namely Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI) and NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) were used to gather data from 70 respondents. Results showed that majority were female, belonging to Millennial age (23-38 years old), had baccalaureate degree in Nursing, with a gross monthly salary of Php 15,000.00- 19,999.00, being in the institution for more than 6 months to 5 years, and have an average nurse to patient ratio of 11.30. Their level of work environment was favorable in all subscales with a composite score of 3.13 (SD= 0.570). Their perceived workload was high, with a mean score of 71.24 (SD= 12.78). Likewise, nurse to patient ratio had a significant relationship with nurse manager ability, leadership, and support of nurses (X2= 94.26, p= <.001) and staffing and resource adequacy (X2= 75.06, p= 0.002). Moreover, significant relationships among the variables of age and physical demand (p= .004), length of institutional experience and physical demand (p <0.001), educational attainment and performance (p= .018), educational attainment and effort (p= .005), and length of institutional experience and effort (p= .001). Last, there is no statistically significant correlation between the overall work environment and the overall workload of nurses (r= -.084, p= .491). These findings underscore the importance of measures aimed at enhancing the work environment and workload of staff nurses to prevent further challenges among them.