Work-life balance behaviours cluster in work settings and relate to burnout and safety culture: a cross-sectional survey analysis.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:Healthcare is approaching a tipping point as burnout and dissatisfaction
with work-life integration (WLI) in healthcare workers continue to increase. A scale
evaluating common behaviours as actionable examples of WLI was introduced to measure
work-life balance. OBJECTIVES:(1) Explore differences in WLI behaviours by role, specialty
and other respondent demographics in a large healthcare system. (2) Evaluate the psychometric
properties of the work-life climate scale, and the extent to which it acts like a
climate, or group-level norm when used at the work setting level. (3) Explore associations
between work-life climate and other healthcare climates including teamwork, safety
and burnout. METHODS:Cross-sectional survey study completed in 2016 of US healthcare
workers within a large academic healthcare system. RESULTS:10 627 of 13 040 eligible
healthcare workers across 440 work settings within seven entities of a large healthcare
system (81% response rate) completed the routine safety culture survey. The overall
work-life climate scale internal consistency was α=0.830. WLI varied significantly
among healthcare worker role, length of time in specialty and work setting. Random
effects analyses of variance for the work-life climate scale revealed significant
between-work setting and within-work setting variance and intraclass correlations
reflected clustering at the work setting level. T-tests of top versus bottom WLI quartile
work settings revealed that positive work-life climate was associated with better
teamwork and safety climates, as well as lower personal burnout and burnout climate
(p<0.001). CONCLUSION:Problems with WLI are common in healthcare workers and differ
significantly based on position and time in specialty. Although typically thought
of as an individual difference variable, WLI appears to operate as a climate, and
is consistently associated with better safety culture norms.
Type
Journal articleSubject
burnoutsafety climate
safety culture
scale
survey
teamwork climate
work-life balance
work-life integration
Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19453Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1136/bmjqs-2018-007933Publication Info
Schwartz, Stephanie P; Adair, Kathryn C; Bae, Jonathan; Rehder, Kyle J; Shanafelt,
Tait D; Profit, Jochen; & Sexton, J Bryan (2019). Work-life balance behaviours cluster in work settings and relate to burnout and safety
culture: a cross-sectional survey analysis. BMJ quality & safety, 28(2). pp. 142-150. 10.1136/bmjqs-2018-007933. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19453.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
More Info
Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Kathryn C. Adair Boulus
Program Manager
I am the Assistant Director of Well-being and Research at the Duke Center for Healthcare
Safety and Quality. My research and talks examine the topic of healthcare worker well-being.
Various lines of research examine the psychology of burnout and resilience, interpersonal
relationships, self-compassion, mindfulness, tools to enhance well-being, and improving
safety culture. For more info, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HIciiRBM7RwiBU7l
Jonathan Gregory Bae
Associate Professor of Medicine
Patient safety and quality improvement, hospital based performance improvement, care
transitions and hospital readmissions, general internal medicine hospital care, resident
and medical student education.
Kyle Jason Rehder
Professor of Pediatrics
Mechanical Ventilation, ECMO, Patient Safety and Quality, Communication, Education
John Bryan Sexton
Associate Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Alphabetical list of authors with Scholars@Duke profiles.

Articles written by Duke faculty are made available through the campus open access policy. For more information see: Duke Open Access Policy
Rights for Collection: Scholarly Articles
Works are deposited here by their authors, and represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info