The Effect of a Mobile Application-Based Work Scheduling Program on the Perceived Quality of Work Life Among Operating Room Nurses in a Tertiary Hospital
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Abstract
Introduction: This quasi-experimental study employed a two-group pretest–posttest design with non-random allocation of the experimental and control groups at the hospital level. It compared perceived quality of work life among operating room nurses between a group receiving a mobile application-based scheduling program and a control group and compared pretest and posttest scores within the experimental group. Materials and methods: The sample consisted of 42 operating room nurses from two hospitals, selected through purposive sampling, with 21 nurses in each group. The research instruments were the mobile application-based scheduling program and a perceived quality of work life questionnaire (S-CVI/Ave = .86; Cronbach's alpha = .91). Data were analyzed using independent-samples and paired-samples t-tests, with the level of statistical significance set at .05. Results: The results showed that, after receiving the program, the experimental group had an overall quality of work life score at a high level ( = 4.04, SD = .13), significantly higher than the control group, which was at a moderate level (
= 3.39, SD = .20), and significantly higher than its own pre-intervention score (
= 3.29, SD = .34), with a between-group mean difference of 0.65 (95% CI 0.55–0.76, Cohen’s d = 3.97) and a within-group pre-post mean difference of 0.76 (95% CI 0.61–0.90, Cohen’s dz = 2.31). Conclusion: These preliminary findings therefore suggest that the program may be associated with enhanced quality of work life among operating room nurses. However, because allocation was conducted at the hospital level with only one hospital per group, the results cannot yet fully separate the program’s effect from institution-specific factors. Nursing administrators may therefore consider applying this approach in settings with similar contexts and further evaluating its outcomes before wider implementation.
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