الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The success or failure of any organization depends mostly on the extent to which employees are committed to their jobs. The need for competent and dedicated people in the nursing profession to render qualitative care to clients is only possible if there is work satisfaction among nurses and other
workers. Organizations setting out to provide a high quality of work-life (QWL) for their members are more likely to be effective and to succeed. The need to ensure QWL of nurses in the health sector demands that managements view employees as cooperating members of a single team.
This study aim was to assess quality of nursing work life and priorities for improvement in a University Hospital from nurses’ point of view. A cross-sectional descriptive study design was used in carrying out the study at Ismailia University Hospitals. The study sample consisted of 265 nurses through a convenience sampling technique. The data were collected using a standardized self-administered
questionnaire sheet including the QWL tool for nursing and the priority for improvement. The tool was revised by a panel of experts in nursing administration to approve its face and
content validity, and was pilot-tested tested for clarity and reliability. The pilot showed good reliability coefficients (Cronbach alpha) of the QWL scale (0.855) and priority scale
(0.801).
After finalization of the tools and securing official permissions from relevant official authorities, the researcher started to meet the nurses in groups, explained to them the aim
and process of the research and obtained their verbal informed consent to participate. The data collection was done during the period of two months from mid June to mid August 2012.
The main findings are as follows:
Nurses’ age ranged between 19 and 52 years with mean 29.7 years, 20% had a bachelor degree. Their mean experience was 8.7 years.
According to nurses’ total rating, the highest domain of QWL was that of work world (40.0%), while the lowest
was that of work context (23.0%). As for improvement priorities, the highest was that of work life/home (55.8%)
and the lowest was the work world (39.2%).
In total, 34.7% of the nurses had a high rating of QWL, and 47.9% highly perceived priorities for improvement.
In the work/home life dimension of QWL and the related improvement priorities, the items of balancing work and family needs, arranging child care while at work, having energy by the end of work, and hospital policy offering
child care showed statistically significant associations.
The items of the work design dimension that had statistically significant associations were feeling job satisfaction, having enough time to do the job efficiently, having enough staff at work, and having the ability to
provide high quality nursing care.
In the work context design dimension, statistically significant associations were shown regarding supervisor providing efficient supervision, opportunities for selfdevelopment at work, communication with other care providers, feeling respected by physicians, having comfortable room for nurses, and having the chance to
continue study through work.
Two items of the work world dimension demonstrated statistically significant associations, namely salary being suitable to job, and feeling own work influences patients’ lives and their families.
Overall, significantly higher percentages of nurses disagreeing with improvement priorities were agreeing
with the dimensions and total of QWL except for the dimension of work design.
The rating of QWL was significantly higher with older age, more experience years, and attending training courses.
The rating of QWL was in surgical departments (81.6%) and the lowest in specialized units (52.5%), p=0.04.
Nurses’ agreement upon improvement priorities was highest in intensive care (64.9%) and the lowest was in
surgical departments (34.7%).
Statistically significant moderate positive correlations were revealed among the scores of various QWL and
priority dimensions.
Statistically significant weak negative correlations were identified between nurses’ QWL and corresponding
priority dimensions. The correlation between the total scores was -0.453.
In conclusion, nurses in the study setting have generally low rating of QWL, with higher rating of priorities for improvement especially the work life/home dimension, and these are negatively correlated. The findings are alarming and indicate urgent need for improvements and need to be forwarded to hospital administration for taking actions to improve the QWL of the nurses through improving the work
environment. This necessitates special emphasis on the work context and work life/home dimensions with provision of more efficient supervision, opportunities for self-development and
study, improving communication, provision of comfortable rooms for nurses, balancing work and family needs, and arranging child care while at work. Further research is proposed to assess the effectiveness of specific interventions in improving nurses’ QWL through responding to identified improvement priorities.