Work–Family Conflict, Resilience and Burnout among Women Staff Nurses: A Moderation Analysis (SPSS + PROCESS)

Work–Family Conflict, Resilience and Burnout among Women Staff Nurses is a quantitative industrial-psychology project written for the IGNOU MA Psychology (MAPC) project course, framed under MPCE-036 (Industrial/Organisational). It studies a group that Indian hospitals depend on and rarely listen to: women staff nurses working rotating shifts in private tertiary-care hospitals while also carrying most of the care work at home.

The project asks two linked questions. First, is work–family conflict — both work interfering with family (WIF) and family interfering with work (FIW) — associated with burnout (personal, work-related and patient-related)? Second, does resilience, the ability to bounce back from stress, moderate that association, so that nurses with higher resilience show a weaker conflict–burnout link?

Data come from 240 women staff nurses in three private hospitals of a metro city, using three published, freely usable instruments: the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS) and the Work–Family Conflict Scale of Netemeyer, Boles and McMurrian. Analysis is done in SPSS with the PROCESS macro (Model 1) for moderation, plus reliability, correlations, group comparisons by shift pattern and hierarchical regression.

The bundle covers the synopsis for supervisor approval, the full method, analysis steps, ethics, the IGNOU report chapter plan, a 12-slide viva presentation and a viva bank. It is an advanced project because moderation analysis, simple-slopes interpretation and institutional permissions all need careful handling.

Abstract

Nursing is a high-demand, emotionally intensive occupation, and in India it is overwhelmingly done by women who also carry primary responsibility at home. Rotating shifts, patient loads and staff shortages in private hospitals make conflict between work and family likely. This project examines the relationship between work–family conflict (WFC) and burnout among 240 women staff nurses in private tertiary-care hospitals, and tests whether resilience moderates that relationship. A cross-sectional correlational design with a moderation model is used. Instruments are the Work–Family Conflict Scale (Netemeyer et al., 1996), the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (Kristensen et al., 2005) and the Brief Resilience Scale (Smith et al., 2008). Analyses include Pearson correlation, independent-samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, hierarchical regression and PROCESS Model 1 in SPSS.

Introduction

Burnout is a state of physical and psychological exhaustion arising from prolonged work stress. For nurses it shows up as fatigue at the start of a shift, detachment from patients and a wish to leave the profession — outcomes that affect patient safety and hospital attrition costs. Work–family conflict is an inter-role conflict in which role pressures from work and family are mutually incompatible. Conservation of Resources theory (Hobfoll) explains why: resources spent on one role are unavailable to the other, and continuous loss leads to exhaustion. Resilience is a personal resource that may slow this loss spiral.

Review gap

Western studies have linked WFC to burnout in nurses consistently. Indian studies exist but are mostly descriptive, draw on government hospitals, or treat burnout as a single score. Few test a moderator that could guide intervention, and fewer separate WIF from FIW or look at shift pattern. This project addresses those gaps.

Hypotheses

• H1: WIF and FIW will correlate positively with each CBI subscale.
• H2: Resilience will correlate negatively with burnout.
• H3: Resilience will moderate the WIF–work-related burnout relationship (a significant WIF × resilience interaction).
• H4: Nurses on rotating night shifts will report higher burnout than those on fixed day shifts.
• H5: Burnout will differ by years of experience (exploratory).

Feasibility

The three scales take about 15 minutes together and are free for academic research with citation. Access is through the nursing superintendents of three hospitals; data can be collected during handover breaks over six weeks. SPSS is available at IGNOU study centres and most colleges, and PROCESS is a free add-on. The total cost is printing and travel, under ₹3,000.

Private tertiary-care hospitals in Indian cities report high nurse attrition, frequent sick leave and early exit from bedside nursing. Nursing superintendents often attribute this to "stress" in general, but interventions such as occasional wellness talks are not based on evidence about which pressures matter most and which personal resources protect nurses.

Women staff nurses in particular work rotating and night shifts while managing children, elderly parents and household duties, which makes conflict between work and family roles a daily reality. Whether this conflict is linked to burnout in this group, how strong the link is, and whether resilience weakens it, has not been tested systematically in Indian private hospitals.

This project therefore studies the relationship between work–family conflict and burnout among women staff nurses, tests resilience as a moderator using the PROCESS macro, and examines differences by shift pattern and experience. The findings are meant to help hospital HR and nursing administration decide whether to invest in schedule redesign, resilience training or both.

In scope

• Women staff nurses (GNM or B.Sc Nursing qualified) with at least one year of experience in three private tertiary-care hospitals of one metro city.
• Self-report measurement of work–family conflict, burnout and resilience.
• Correlation, group comparisons, hierarchical regression and moderation analysis with PROCESS Model 1.
• HR-oriented recommendations for scheduling and staff support.

Out of scope

• Male nurses, nursing students, nurses in government hospitals.
• Clinical diagnosis of depression or any disorder.
• Longitudinal tracking or intervention evaluation.
• Patient outcomes or hospital performance data.

Research design

A cross-sectional correlational design with a moderation model. WFC (WIF and FIW) is the predictor, burnout (three CBI subscales) is the criterion, and resilience is the moderator. Shift pattern and experience are grouping variables.

Sample and sampling

• Population: women staff nurses in three private tertiary-care hospitals (200+ beds each).
• Sample size: for a regression with three predictors (X, W, X×W) and a small interaction effect (f² = .05), α = .05 and power .80, G*Power gives about 222; the target is 240, with 280 questionnaires distributed.
• Technique: proportionate stratified random sampling by department (wards, ICU, OT, emergency) from duty rosters shared by nursing superintendents.
• Inclusion: women, ≥ 1 year experience, currently in direct patient care. Exclusion: nurses on long leave, nursing supervisors with no bedside duty.

Instruments

Procedure

Synopsis approval by the IGNOU supervisor → permission from hospital administration and nursing superintendent (and the hospital ethics committee where required) → pilot with 20 nurses → administration during handover breaks in sealed envelopes → collection through a drop box to protect confidentiality → debrief sheet with the hospital EAP/counsellor and Tele-MANAS 14416.

Analysis (SPSS)

1. Data screening: missing values, outliers (z > 3.29), normality.
2. Cronbach's α for WIF, FIW, three CBI subscales and BRS.
3. Pearson correlations (H1, H2).
4. Independent-samples t-test by shift pattern (H4); one-way ANOVA with Tukey post hoc for experience groups (H5).
5. Hierarchical regression: Step 1 age and experience; Step 2 WIF, FIW; Step 3 resilience.
6. PROCESS Model 1 (X = WIF, W = BRS, Y = work-related burnout), mean-centred, 5,000 bootstrap samples, simple slopes at −1 SD, mean, +1 SD, Johnson–Neyman output.

Timeline (24 weeks)