A Comparative Assessment of Work-Life Balance, Work Stress and Job Satisfaction among Female Nursing Staff in Government and Private Hospitals

Nursing is one of the most demanding jobs in the health care industry, and for women, especially, it is a challenging job to combine the heavy workload of nursing with the responsibilities at home. Work-life balance, work stress and job satisfaction have been studied independently but there is limited comparative evidence on differences and interrelationships between these constructs in the government and private hospitals of India. The current study, therefore, is designed to (i) compare, (ii) explore the structural relationships between work-life balance, work stress and job satisfaction among female nursing staff in government and private hospitals, and (iii) assess whether the structural relationships between these constructs are different for female nursing staff in government and private hospitals. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from 200 female nurses, government and private, respectively. The independent samples t-test, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and multi-group analysis were used. The government hospital nurses reported significantly higher level of work-life balance (t = 4.17, d = 0.59) and job satisfaction (t = 4.41, d = 0.62) with significantly lower level of work stress (t = −3.66, d = 0.52) than the private hospital nurses (p < 0.001). Work stress showed a negative correlation with work-life balance (β = −0.52) and job satisfaction (β = −0.24) and work-life balance showed a positive correlation with job satisfaction (β = 0.45). The impact of work stress on job satisfaction was partially explained by work-life balance. Multi-group analysis showed that the paths between stress and balance and between balance and satisfaction were significantly greater for the private hospitals nurses. The results have practical implications for hospital managers and administrators and help inform the development of policies to enhance the health and job satisfaction of women in the nursing profession.