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Hello my name is Katie Conrad and I am from the float pool.
Knowledge gained:
I gained a sense of ownership over work life balance from these articles. Lupa and Rulz-Castro’s article discusses steps to help find better work life balance. One advice that is given is self reflections and acknowledgement of issues at hand. I have found many times in my nursing career and home life where I over extend myself. The pendulum swings from one side to other making either home duties or work duties exhausting. Taking ownership over things I can control and learning from mistakes allows me to move on to a solution. In my nursing career solutions have ranged from changing schedules to changing departments. At home I have learned that it takes a village and when that village isn’t available than it is time to cut back.What other questions does the article raise about current practice?
COVID is a tricky illness that we are still learning about. I don’t know how many times I have seen isolation/quarantine changes since the start of the pandemic. One thing that I feel is straining at this time is the amount of sick time that families have had to go through. Having a daughter in daycare myself, I have felt this burden. Schools and daycares continue to require doctor’s notes for children to return making one ill call turn into multiple days. My sick bank has decreased significantly to where I have reconsidered certain vacation days which isn’t good work/life balance practices. I would like to see a COVID sick bank return.Will the research/information in this article change or influence your practice? If so how?
Yes, as someone who thrives when those around me thrive. I realize balancing work life benefits myself, my family and coworkers. This article encourages me to take it a step further and look into how balanced am I personally. Am I guilty of over extending myself in one area over the other? Of course I am but the articles also encourages me that knowing I realize this means I already on the road to fixing it.Jeff- The United States has a problem with overworking. We work more overtime and have more work-related illnesses than most other countries. The strange thing is we wear this as a badge of honor. I am proud of American productivity and our hard-working reputation, but we are literally working ourselves to death. I agree that we should explore having a shorter work week or perhaps more vacation time. I think this will require a cultural shift from “live to work” to “work to live” as Michelle mentioned in her post. We need to realize that taking time for ourselves is not a form of weakness.
Kelly- when I joined outpatient float pool I too was disappointed that I was working 4 days a week instead of 3. But the three 12-hour shifts were really wearing me down. When considering changing to outpatient, I complained to my wife about possibly working 4 days a week. She pointed out that, although I had 4 days off, one of those days off I was so tired I didn’t get anything done. Working 10-hour shifts is much more manageable for me. That just highlights the point that work-life balance is a cycle and needs continual reevaluation as our circumstances change. Ultimately I would love to cut back on my hours and work two 10’s and two 8’s, but cannot afford to right now.
Hello! This is Greg from outpatient JCRU.
1. I was surprised to find that Schieman, Badawy, and Hill (2022) found that positive perceptions of overall work life fit were muted among those who worked from home. I would think this group of people would have better perception work life balance. My wife has worked from home since Covid and she did have some struggles early on figuring out her new work life balance, but overall I think it has been a positive experience for her. Something neither of the articles mentioned but I remember reading about during the pandemic was, for people working from home, how much time people gained by not having to commute. Especially in cities such as LA, people sometimes gained several hours of personal time by not being stuck in traffic before and after work. My wife will take our dogs on a walk during a work break- something she could never have done when she was working in an office 30 minutes from home.
2. Since I work in a role that cannot work from home, this article doesn’t change much for me. However, I think telehealth is an excellent idea for many of our patients and I support its continued use. Many of our patients travel from 2 hours away or more and they find telehealth very beneficial. I have seen patients even get labs drawn locally, have the results faxed over or shared electronically, then have a telehealth appointment. But there are many healthcare visits that need to be conducted in person, especially for symptom assessment.
3. Other than telehealth, which I have already discussed, how does this affect us? Covid and work from home aside, work life balance is very important to those of us in healthcare. The pandemic has further strained this balance for many of us, as workloads have steadily increased, and sometimes work follows us home as we have sick family members and neighbors. One of the most important skills in maintaining work-life balance is knowing when to and how to say no. No to overtime or no to extra work or no to whatever has upset your balance. The problem is, we are so compassionate that we are not very good at saying no. We carry our work problems and concerns around with us. The pandemic has forced change on all of us. I just hope all of us in healthcare can once again find balance in this part of our cycle.
Lupu, I., & Ruiz-Castro, M. (2021, January 29). Work-life balance is a cycle, not an achievement. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved July 26, 2022, from https://hbr.org/2021/01/work-life-balance-is-a-cycle-not-an-achievement
Schieman, S., Badawy, P., & Hill, D. (2022). Did perceptions of supportive work–life culture change during the COVID-19 pandemic? Journal of Marriage and Family, 84(2), 655–672. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12826672JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND FAMILY
Greg: I agree with your comment that work life balance looks different during different parts of our life. COVID showcased that in many circumstances. During the initial start when my son was home with me I noticed my schedule would change more towards me working weekends but quickly I felt the strain on working more during my family’s “off” time. I do feel lucky in some stance that as a nurse my schedule during that time was flexible. However, my work stress was quickly spilling over into my home life at the time and I eventually switched into a role that my schedule could be more consistent.
What was the knowledge gained from the article? These articles were very interesting. I particularly enjoyed reading Work Life Balance is a Cycle, Not An Achievement. It reminded me that things in life are constantly changing. It is my responsible to acknowledge these changes so that I can be better balanced emotionally.
What other questions does the article raise about current practice? In the medical field the employer had to be flexible with ill time since the pandemic. Our ill policy is very limiting, a 6 month rotating calendar you can only call off three times. I know that if a company is too lenient then people take advantage of it but it a company is to strict people come to work sick. This is such a dilemma.
Do you agree/disagree with the conclusions of the author, why? The medical field is difficult to compare to other lines of business because of it’s unique needs. I do worry on how we are going to keep future generations interested in our field because it’s difficult to have a work/life balance.Greg I agree that telehealth can make a big difference to our patients. Gas is so expensive and most of the time patients are seeing multiple specialist.
Jeff I agree that other countries seem to have a more balanced work-life.
Although my sibling work inpatient and they reminded constantly how lucky I am as a nurse to have weekends and holidays off. I worked several years sacrificing my holidays with family to be at work.
Hello, This is Lee Ann, Outpatient Clinic RN. These articles reinforced the importance of work life balance, regardless of profession. I learned that individual circumstances may influence your perception of workplace changes that occurred as a result of the pandemic. In my household consisting of two adults, we saw the pandemic as a crisis where we were in a position (no children in the home) of not needing to come up with a way to provide schooling or childcare at a time when schools and daycare were closed.
The Canadian article raised questions for me about the definition of an “ideal worker”. I think about how the children of today will remember their parents role during covid isolation and how it might affect the definition of an “ideal worker” in future years. I asked myself the question, “Where did my personal definition of an ideal worker come from”. I believe it came largely from my childhood experiences and the attitudes of my elders.
The information in the articles may influence my practice by serving as reminder of the psychological stress experienced by the individual who works outside the home and has children in or another adult in their household who depends upon them for care. Work-life balance is a topic that I bring up with patients when assessing levels of stress. In my work as a clinic RN I need to appreciate that when people take time off work for a clinic appointment, I must do what I can to get them seen on time. They may be experiencing additional stress by leaving work to take care of personal needs.
I agree that work-life balance is a cycle. Over the span of a lifetime, we all will experience different needs at different stages in our life in order to achieve balance. For example, working (3) 12 hour shifts as a staff RN provided me with a very good work-life balance when it came to caring for my father prior to his death in a way I could not have done working my current 5 days a week. I have felt the nursing profession offers a variety of work situations to chose from, depending on your financial needs and stage in life. It is up to me to take the measures necessary to maintain balance.
Holly, If I understand your post correctly, I think it is very insightful that you mentioned having made changes to your hours/job possibly without actually being aware at the time that what you were doing would benefit your pursuit of an improved work life balance Your posting caused to reflect on my past and think that it is mostly in hindsight that I realize the benefit or detriment of my actions in regard to work life balance.
Jeff, your mention of hospitals having to stay open, and the need to avoid staff call offs caught my attention. I am not aware of industry standards, but the daily number of call offs that I am aware of is higher than I would expect. If the culture surrounding scheduling guidelines could be more accommodating of requests off, would the number of staff call offs decrease over time? I think it is possibly something to consider.Meeting staffing needs versus allowing staff to achieve the work life balance they strive for is a challenge.
Lee Ann you mentioned assessing patient’s stress levels and including discussion of work-life balance. This is interesting because oftentimes I am always considering my own work-life balancing and fail to check in on my patient’s well being when it comes to work-life balance. As other’s have mentioned in this thread, people often make their identity reflective on their profession and how much work they put into their career. Oftentimes our oncology patient’s lose that sense and have very time consuming medical appointments.
MIndy Blackwell – gyn/onc ambulatory
These articles were interesting but definately does not reflect nursing.
1- there were a lot of speculations in these articles that work life balance improved with working from home during COVID.
Overall there was an increase in improvement. Even for those with kids because it increased their contributions to domestic needs during the pandemic per Scott Schliemann article. Whereas pre-covid, often tending to domestic needs rec’d negative responses in the workplace. I see this but it is not just the employer but more so from co-workers.
The employers were definitely more sympathetic to that balance than pre covid.
2- unfortunately none of this will change in my practice as I am not a candidate to work from home. I have already shrugged off any negative responses to my attempts to balance life and put work on hold. I do whatever I am asked when at work and do not feel guilty for taking time off.I am a nurse and consider it a win if I get to go to the bathroom.
3- if the conclusion is that there is a better work life balance then why can’t those work from home that are not providing direct patient care? We constantly hear about “care of self” with little to no actual action of self care and this would be an excellent care of self action.
Even 1 day a week would decrease stress. , Just by eliminating the travel to and from work would greatly decrease stress. So many people that do WFH say they get a lot more done because they don’t have the interruptions they get in office.Patty Gabel: in response to “Although my sibling work inpatient and they reminded constantly how lucky I am as a nurse to have weekends and holidays off. I worked several years sacrificing my holidays with family to be at work.”
We may have weekends and holidays off but we also don’t have the opportunity for the holiday pay or weekend shift diff nor do most of us mon-fri have any opportunities to work for overtime. We also don’t have anyone to pass off to, but we work until we are done regardless of what we are scheduled.
I am feeling lately that work life balance is definitely harder in ambulatory than it was inpatient even w/ having to work weekends and holidays.Lee Ann – I couldn’t said it better myself in regards to your entire post.
The ideal worker is definitely only defined by what we are told or we see when in reality I truly believe the ideal worker is one that puts family first and is able to put the job 2nd priority. The ideal worker should also be one that is supportive of the co-workers’ putting family first and care of self. HOWEVER, there will always be those that would abuse those considerations making balancing less doable.What was the knowledge gained from the article?
Both of these articles discuss how the pandemic altered the work-home balance. Companies had to become more flexible and patient with their employees as they now had to manage their children being at home while they were also working. It truly is a cycle that changes every year.
Will the research/information in this article change or influence your practice? If so how?
I have always been very good about work/life balance. I have been very fortunate throughout my nursing career to have managers that valued this, once you leave work you shouldn’t have to think about work. If something comes up while at work that you need to handle, go take care of it.
What other questions does the article raise about current practice? My question is, will companies continue recognizing the significance of a work/life balance as we begin to shift out of the pandemic. Some companies are forcing employees to return to the office and this changes their lives drastically. Employees are enjoying being at home and working as it creates more flexibility and gives the feeling of having more hours in the day. Companies should focus MORE on employee satisfaction.
Do I agree or disagree with the authors? I agree that COVID had a great impact on work-life balance, mainly for the better. It took several months for us to adjust, but I agree most families prefer this than the commute to workGreg, I agree with you that it would seem those working from home would have a more positive outlook. For my husband, like you said with your wife, it took a while to adjust but he has come to really enjoy it especially since we rescued a dog during that time.
People definitely gained more time, no travel time, can “roll out of bed” and start work. Doesn’t need excess time in the afternoon to prep food for the next day. What is also nice, if my husband has slow work day, he can run to the store or do a few things around the house. It has saved BOTH of us a lot of time and stress.
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