Equilíbrio ocupacional: explorando o uso do tempo da equipe de enfermagem de um hospital público universitário

Abstract

Occupational balance is an important concept in occupational science, associated to the time use and to the satisfaction of the individual with routine activities. It has been studied from an individual perspective and in populations with specific health conditions, with few investigations in professional groups. The investigation of factors associated to the occupational balance in workers, including the time use, may contribute for timely interventions focused on the individual, aiming to increase the balance between occupations and promote health and well-being. Therefore, the objective of this dissertation was to evaluate the occupational balance of the nursing team of a public teaching hospital, using the methodology of time use. This is a cross-sectional study carried out from January to March 2020 in the hospitalization sectors of a public teaching hospital. 107 professionals from the nursing team were evaluated using a questionnaire with sociodemographic, professional, life and health habits information, and a time-use diary was used to identify the activities carried out in the period of 24 hours on one day of the week and on one day of the weekend, categorized by the International Classifications of Activities for Statistics on the Time use 2016. Descriptive statistics and a Binary Logistic Regression were used. The greatest part of the sample (81.3%) was made up by nursing technicians/auxiliaries; 90.7% were women; 54.2% lived with a partner; the mean age was 38.57 years; and 66.4% had children. 33.6% of participants had a post-graduation, with a mean of 13.09 years of formal education and approximately 8.10 years working in the institution. The mean salary was 4.60 minimum wages. Most participants were sedentary (53.3%); 34.6% consumed alcohol and 5.6% smoked. 40.2% have at least one diagnosis; 28.0% self-reported some disease; and 83% evaluated their health as good/very good. On weekdays, sleep was the activity in which they spent the most time (mean=462.09 minutes), followed by work (mean=383.92), with the same tendency in weekends. Leisure was one of the activities that consumed the least amount of time on weekdays (mean=7.97 minutes), with an increase on weekends (mean=14.30 minutes). The mean of satisfaction with the occupational balance was 7.04, with 52.3% of participants dissatisfied with their occupational balance. Living with a partner, having a self-reported disease, spending more time in physical activities as their main activity in weekdays, and spending more time with relatives/friends as a secondary activity in weekdays were predictors of a better satisfaction with the occupational balance. The methodology of the time use made it possible to identify categories of activities that can promote a better occupational balance and a better satisfaction with this balance. These results may give support to occupational health actions and activities to promote health, targeted at giving support to health professionals, especially in the case of workers from the nursing team, by improving their occupational balance.