Study on workload of public health nurses and other women health workers in India

Introduction. The study gathered information on work load among women public health workers and factors associated with this in Thiruvananthapuram, Alappuzha, Ernakulam, Malappuram and Wayanad districts of Kerala. An increasing number of nurses were reported to have occupational hazards and are suffering from back injuries due to lifting and moving patients. A study in Australia found work and age related factors increase difficulties that lead to perceived workload (Fragar and Depczynski 2011). Philibin et.al. study in Ireland on public health nurses’ role in changing society emphasized the need for defining and redesigning their role for better community service. Methodology: Primary data collection was done from 1238 respondents that included, Junior Public Health Nurses, Junior Health Inspector, Staff nurses, Lady Health Inspectors and Lady Health Supervisors. In addition, time and work study in selected work places and Qualitative enquiries also been done. Findings: The prevalence of three components of workload namely role overload, role stagnation and self role distance were 75.26% (95% CI: 72.78, 77.59), 55.62% (95% CI: 52.84, 58.37) and 12.04% (95% CI: 10.34, 13.97) respectively. The role stagnation decreases with age (p=0.004). The Role overload is higher among women and the role stagnation and self role distance are higher among men. Workload is higher to those who disagree that their training helped in upgrading skills and knowledge. Conclusion: Workload of public health nurses is related to their salary, additional duties such as managing funds, attending meetings, maintaining records and so on. They affect their assigned routine health delivery activities.