Prevalence and factors associated with work apathy among nurses and mid-wives working in selected referral hospitals in Uganda

Abstract

Background: Work apathy refers to a lack of feeling or emotion, lack of interest or concern, or a syndrome of impaired motivation and consequent reduced goal-directed behaviour. The main problem associated with work apathy in Health Institutions included; patient mortality, patients’ morbidity, demotivation, resource wastage, loss of trust in health care services, delayed treatment, poor leadership and staff burn-out. Objectives: To determine the prevalence and factors associated with work apathy among nurses and mid-wives working in Maternity wards in selected Referral Hospitals in Uganda. Methods: This was a cross sectional study, carried out in three selected Regional Referral Hospitals in different regions of Uganda. The study sites were chosen because of high volume of patients. This comprised of Kawempe national referral Hospital (KNRH) which is the training site for MaKCHS and has the biggest maternity in the central region with 136 midwives and 62 nurses, Jinja regional referral Hospital (JRRH) has the biggest Maternity ward in the Eastern region with 110 midwives and 38 nurses and Gulu regional referral Hospital (GRRH) which is the biggest Maternity in the Northern region with100 midwives and 30 nurses. Research assistants administered the questionnaire to study participants as well as filled the observational checklists. All complete data was entered into a computer with a data entry template using Epi-data version 4.4.1 then analyzed using STATA V16 software packages with an in-built quality control check. Results: The prevalence of work apathy among the nurses and mid-wives was at a fair level on average. But considering the individual facility, work apathy was high in the more rural health facilities compared to the urban facilities. Work apathy was lowest among middle age health workers as compared to very young and old health workers. Work apathy was higher among females as compared to males. Work apathy was lower among staff with experience of many years. Nurses and midwives with physical exhaustion had higher work apathy compared to those who do not. Nurses and midwives with challenges of participation in departmental meeting had work apathy higher than those who never had challenges. Nurses and midwives who always had challenges in administrative work in the facility had work apathy higher than those who never had challenges. In addition, nurses and midwives who often got challenges in participating in administrative work in the facility had work apathy that was higher than those who never had challenges. Conclusion: We found a fair level of Work Apathy among nurses and midwives, in the three selected Referral Hospitals. However, on individual basis, GRRH, being the most rural among them has a much higher level of work apathy followed by JRRH at fairly high level then KNRH in Kampala city at a low level. Recommendations; More comprehensive study needs to be conducted in rural health facilities to assess the level of work apathy and their associated factors. The rural health facilities should employ equivalent numbers of male staff to reduced work apathy. More effort should be made to employ an equivalence staff in maternity wards to match the clients’ number in public hospitals to reduce physical exhaustion.