Family Functioning Of Staff Of An Urban Hospital In Nigeria

Abstract

Objective: Work and family are the most central domains in an individual’s life. Because work and family are closely interconnected, linkages between work and family affect organizational performance and family functioning, both of which are important markers of societal well-being. This study set out to assess how functional the families of staff in an urban mission hospital setting were.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey of all consenting staff of Bingham University Teaching Hospital. Socio-demographic data and family function were obtained using standardized questionnaires including the Family APGAR tool. Data was collated and analysed using SPSS version 17 software.

Results: The response rate for this study was 68.8%. Most, 84.1% (185), of the health workers studied had highly functional families, 14.5% had moderately dysfunctional families and 1.4% had severely dysfunctional families. There was no significant relationship between family function category and occupation OR 0.87(0.43-1.71), gender 0.63 (0.29-1.38), marital status 0.59 (0.31-1.12), duration of employment 0.81 (0.37-1.74), age 0.92 (0.43-1.97), and educational status 0.80 (0.41-1.58).

Conclusion: This study demonstrates good family functioning among the staff of an urban hospital.