Life balance and professional quality of life among baccalaureate nurse faculty

The nurse faculty shortage is a well-documented problem. The future workforce is dependent upon qualified faculty who desire to teach students.

The purpose was to explore the relationship between nurse faculty life balance and quality of life.

A cross-sectional study was conducted through surveying nurse faculty (N = 108). The Life Balance Inventory measured health, relationships, identity, challenge/interest, and activities of daily living with scores ranging from 1 (unbalanced) to 3 (very balanced). The Professional Quality of Life scale measured compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress with scores ranging from 22 or less (low), 23-41 (average), and 42 or more (high). Descriptive statistics and correlations were calculated.

Nurse faculty had moderate life balance (Mean = 2.23), average compassion satisfaction (Mean = 40.17), average burnout (Mean = 24.86), and low secondary traumatic stress (Mean = 20.14). The moderate and weak, negative correlations between total life balance and both burnout (r = -0.461, p < .001) and secondary traumatic stress (r = -0.267, p = .008) respectively were significant, but the correlation with compassion satisfaction (r = 0.174, p = .078) was not.

It is critical to create supportive work environments for nursing faculty that promote well-being and reduce burnout and stress.