Changes in University Hospital Physicians' Work and Family Lives Following Outsourcing of Housework Cleaning Tasks.

Background: Japan is reviewing how physicians operate and plans to implement a work-style reform for physicians in 2024. This study examined how outsourcing housework cleaning tasks changed the daily lives of university hospital physicians. Methods: A total of 18 physicians participated in the study, outsourcing cleaning tasks either once or thrice. Results: Fourteen out of 18 respondents reported a decrease in the burden of household chores. Additionally, 10 respondents reported having more time for family contact, and nine respondents reported having more time for their own hobbies and diversions. Meanwhile, only five respondents reported that they had more time to work. Conclusion: Outsourcing housework cleaning tasks and using the newly created time for family and self may improve work performance.

Medical Doctors' Work-Life Balance and the Use of Household Chore Support Services.

Background: Achieving an optimal work-life balance (WLB) is an important social issue not only for workers in general but also for doctors due to the shortage of women doctors. The present study aims to survey doctors' WLB and their use of household chore support services (HCSS). Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted with doctors working in Tottori Prefecture and a total of 289 responses (212 men, 77 women) were obtained and analyzed. To examine the relationship between gender and satisfaction with working patterns or with life for WLB, as well as the use of HCSS, a chi-squared test was conducted. Furthermore, a chi-squared test was conducted including age, marital status, whether or not they have preschool-aged children, and type of institution the participant worked. Results: A significant difference was found in type of institution the participant worked regarding satisfaction with work patterns and life. The proportion of those who have used HCSS was 12.5% of the total sample and was significantly higher for women than men (men: 8.5%; women: 23.4%). Regarding the reason to use HCSS, "to reduce the burden of household chores and childcare" and "to secure time for work" were most common with the same proportions, and amongst women, "to secure time for work" was the highest. Conclusion: Doctors working at a university hospital could have different work patterns and satisfaction with life compared to those working at other types of medical institutions. Additionally, the demand for HCSS was particularly high among women doctors, which suggests that HCSS may be used to reduce the burden of household chores and childcare, as well as to create time for work.

Commitment profiles among nurses: combinations of organizational commitment forms and work engagement, psychological distress, and turnover intention.

To clarify the combined effect of the sub-factors of organizational commitment, this study examined the relationships between organizational commitment profiles and work engagement, psychological distress, and turnover intention among nurses. A cross-sectional survey was conducted; 455 nurses (38 men and 417 women) were included in the statistical analysis. We extracted six clusters through k-means cluster analysis and applied a one-way analysis of variance and χ2 test for work engagement, psychological distress, and turnover intention. Consequently, significant differences were found in work engagement and turnover intention (both p<0.05), and no significant difference was found in psychological distress. These results indicate the formation of affective and normative commitment among nurses in working energetically or preventing turnover. Additionally, no negative effects related to increases in continuance commitment were identified in this study.

The Effect of Nurses' Work-Life Balance on Work Engagement: The Adjustment Effect of Affective Commitment.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to examine the effects of nurses' work-life balance (WLB), job demands and resources, and organizational attachment on their work engagement (WE). The second aim was to shed light on whether the relationships among WLB, job demands, resources, and WE are modulated by organizational attachment. METHODS: In total, 425 nurses working in a university hospital responded to the questionnaire. The primary statistical analysis method was hierarchical multiple regression with WE as the dependent variable. RESULTS: In the model in which all variables were applied, affective commitment (AC) (ß = 0.41), family-to-work positive spillover (ß = 0.25), and number of children (ß = 0.13) were found to have a significant association with WE. Family-to-work negative spillover (FWNS) and AC had significant interaction effects. The result suggests that when AC was low, WE tended to decline further due to FWNS; however, when AC was high, WE did not change due to the effect of FWNS. CONCLUSION: These results confirmed that to improve nurses' WE, hospital organizations should implement initiatives to facilitate WLB that considers nurses' household roles. Furthermore, high organizational attachment buffered the home's negative influence on work, thereby helping nurses work energetically.

Developmental changes in attention to social information from childhood to adolescence in autism spectrum disorders: a comparative study.

BACKGROUND: Elucidating developmental changes in the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is important to support individuals with ASD. However, no report has clarified the developmental changes in attention to social information for a broad age range. The aim of this study was to investigate the developmental changes in attention to social information from early childhood to adolescence in individuals with ASD and typically developed (TD) children. METHODS: We recruited children with ASD (n = 83) and TD participants (n = 307) between 2 and 18 years of age. Using the all-in-one-eye-tracking system, Gazefinder, we measured the percentage fixation time allocated to areas of interest (AoIs) depicted in movies (the eyes and mouth in movies of a human face with/without mouth motion, upright and inverted biological motion in movies showing these stimuli simultaneously, people and geometry in preference paradigm movies showing these stimuli simultaneously, and objects with/without finger-pointing in a movie showing a woman pointing toward an object). We conducted a three-way analysis of variance, 2 (diagnosis: ASD and TD) by 2 (sex: male and female) by 3 (age group: 0-5, 6-11, and 12-18 years) and locally weighted the scatterplot smoothing (LOESS) regression curve on each AoI. RESULTS: In the face stimuli, the percentage fixation time to the eye region for the TD group increased with age, whereas the one for the ASD group did not. In the ASD group, the LOESS curves of the gaze ratios at the eye region increased up to approximately 10 years of age and thereafter tended to decrease. For the percentage fixation time to the people region in the preference paradigm, the ASD group gazed more briefly at people than did the TD group. LIMITATIONS: It is possible that due to the cross-sectional design, the degree of severity and of social interest might have differed according to the subjects' age. CONCLUSIONS: There may be qualitative differences in abnormal eye contact in ASD between individuals in early childhood and those older than 10 years.