Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Determining the characteristics of a mental supportive workplace according to female hospital staff in one of Tehran hospitals: A qualitative study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Mitra Faghihi 1
. Aliasghar Farshad 2
. Maryam Biglari Abhari 3
. Nammamali Azadi 4
. Morteza Mansourian 5

1 Ph.D Student in Health Education and Promotion, Department of Health Education and Promotion, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

2 Professor, Occupational health Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

3 Community medicine specialist Preventive Medicine and Public Health Research Center, Psychosocial Health Research Institute, Community and Family Medicine Department, School of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

4 Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

5 Associate Professor, Health Management and Economics Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
BACKGROUND: Health‑care workers are exposed to complex types of health and safety hazards. 
A high percentage of hospital staff in Iran are women, who in addition to heavy and stressful hospital 
work, also carry the burden of the family roles. It is in these circumstances that creating a supportive 
environment for women is of particular importance. Accordingly, this study is designed to determine 
the characteristics of a mental supporting work environment in the workplace from the perspective 
of female hospital staff.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was performed by a qualitative method and content 
analysis approach. Sampling was purposive and 26 women working in different wards of this 
hospital were included in the study. In this study, women with maximum diversity in terms of age, 
work experience, and employment ward were selected. The main method of data collection in this 
study was a semi‑structured interview. Interview texts were extracted and divided into meaningful 
units. To validate and confirm the results plus accuracy of the research, the criterion of data validity 
or data credibility, admissibility, data accuracy, verifiability, reliability, and transferability were used.
RESULTS: Through the data analysis, 58 primary concepts with the same features were classified 
into 10 subcategories. Then, based on common features at a more abstract level, they were converted 
into four main categories including job stressors, women’s stress management, providing women’s 
psychological‑job satisfaction, and women’s work‑life balance.
CONCLUSION: Creating supportive work environments for women, especially those operating in 
workplaces such as hospitals, which brings a lot of work pressure and workload for them, can be an 
important policy for organizations and hospital work environments.

Keywords

Health promotion
hospital
women’s health
workplace
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 12, Issue 4
April 2022
Pages 1-12

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