Quality of Work Life of Midwives in Sabzevar

Objectives The quality of midwifery services for 2 sensitive society groups, such as mothers and children, strongly depends on the midwives’ performance. Recently, quality of work life as the effective parameter on employee's job satisfaction, job performance, and organizational transformation is focused by managers. The current study aimed at assessing the quality of work life among midwives in Sabzevar, Iran.
Methods The current descriptive, cross sectional study was performed using census data in 2010 on all midwives employed in hospitals and healthcare centers affiliated to Sabzevar University of Medical Sciences. Data were collected by the quality of work life and demographic questionnaires. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 18 using descriptive analytic indices, independent t test, ANOVA, and the Pearson correlation coefficient.
Results The mean age of midwives was 31.5± 6.6 years and the mean score of work life quality for midwives was 10.4 ±7.1 out of 60 points, indicating low quality of work life in all participants. There was a correlation between the overall quality of work life and the average working hours per week (P=0.021), and satisfaction of workload in shifts (P=0.002); but there was no significant relationship between the quality of work life and demographic characteristics such as age (P=0.30), academic degree (P=0.24), marital status (P=0.27), number of children (P=0.95), and monthly salary (P =0.37).
Conclusion It is hoped that the authorities take proper measures to improve midwive's work condition, enhance job security, and use midwives’ professional ability in the areas of their skills.