Work-Family Conflict in Nurses During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses were praised as the main heroes of the fight against the disease, but pandemic conditions affected the balance between their work and family responsibilities. To this end, the present study aimed to explore the incidence of work-family conflict in nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at COVID-19 referral hospitals in Mazandaran Province, Iran, in 2021. The participants were 200 nurses who were selected using convenience and purposive sampling. The data were collected using the Work-Family Conflict Scale (WAFCS), which was distributed and completed online. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS-16 software using descriptive and inferential statistics. Most of the participants were working as nurses for an average of seven years and had been caring for COVID-19 patients for at least 4-6 months until the time of data collection. The mean work-family conflict score was 78.80±1.1. The data also showed that the severity of work interference with family (WIF) in both time and strain dimensions (83.81±0.3) was significantly higher than the severity of family interference with work (FIW) (65.90±0.3) in these two dimensions.  Nurses faced an imbalance between work and family functions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since nurses are at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic, it is necessary to pay special attention to their working conditions and family life. Moreover, effective and practical solutions should be provided by managers to resolve work-family challenges.