Demographic Variables Influence on Work Engagement of Nurses and Doctors in Hospitals.
It has been foreseen that the healthcare sector in India will be at par with the IT services as well as education in terms of revenue, and would largely contribute to the countrys economy. The health-care industry is presently worth $ 7 Billion dollars (USD), and is predicted to grow at the rate of 13% every year. At this pace, work levels in hospitals have increased, and an employees contribution towards work has decreased. The psychological connection of employees towards their work has gained critical importance; as organizations find that their employees are not giving their best in these times when the demand is on its rise. Work engagement is a positive-fulfilling work-related state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption, where vigor being high energy levels and mental resilience, dedication being a state of mind where an individual is strongly involved in ones work, and absorption is characterized by engrossment and concentration towards ones work. Literature review on work engagement from the last decade has focused on the relationship of engagement with job satisfaction, employee turnover, performance, and other human resource related constructs. A sample of 372 respondents comprising of doctors and nurses form 20 hospitals (corporate, government and private/trust) of 150 beds and above. Respondents were chosen by using judgmental sampling technique. The variables under investigation were Work engagement and eight demographic characteristics of the respondents. Utrecht Work engagement scale (UWES), by Wilmar Schaufeli and Arnold Baker, (2003), and based on the objectives the eight demographics were included. Fourteen hypotheses were tested and the major findings were that the overall work engagement for doctors was significantly high, and for nurses it was found to be moderate. Significant difference on work engagement levels on doctors was found across gender, educational qualification, age of the respondents, marital status, number of children, and types of hospitals. No significant difference on work engagement levels was found across work experience for doctors. Significant difference on work engagement levels on nurses was found across educational qualification, age of the respondents, work experience, marital status, number of children, and type of hospitals for nurses. No significant difference on work engagement levels was found across gender for nurses. Implications suggested that hospitals develop a flexible training, and therapeutic program for men and women to manage stress customized to their requirement. Focus should be given on encouraging employees to continue higher education. Younger and less experienced employees should be encouraged to interact with senior staff as their sharing of ideas and thoughts would be beneficial to both older and younger employees. Hospitals should imbibe values and ethics which are based on compassion, love for mankind and development of society through good leadership which would inspire them to go that extra mile. Key words: Work engagement, Demographic influence, Doctors, Nurses.