Daily work-family conflict and burnout to explain the leaving intentions and vitality levels of healthcare workers: Interactive effects using an experience-sampling method

Abstract

There is an intensification of work in global health systems, a phenomenon that could increase work-family conflict, exhaustion, and intentions to leave among healthcare workers. The main objective of this study is to analyze if daily work-family conflict and burnout could explain the daily leaving intentions and vitality of healthcare workers. This is a diary study, which employs an experience-sampling methodology (ESM). A total of 56 physicians, nurses, and nursing aides from intensive care and nephrology units filled out various quantitative scales during 5 working days (56 × 5 = 280 observations). Multilevel hierarchical analysis showed that daily work-family conflict and burnout were significantly associated with higher daily intentions of leaving the profession, and with lower levels of daily vitality. In addition, those workers who experienced more work-family conflict and depersonalization on a daily basis were those who showed more intentions to leave and less daily vitality, showing an interactive effect. The results highlight the importance of examining the psychosocial risks experienced by healthcare workers by employing experience-sampling methodologies, which could help us to deepen our understanding of the proximal antecedents of their intentions to leave and their psychological well-being.