Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of the study was to explore the characteristic of Quality of Working Life (QWL) research studies related to healthcare sector. Methods: We systematically searched PubMed, Science Direct, and Cochrane Library databases till February 2015. We uses those search term that are ‘health occupation’, ‘health personnel’, ‘medical staff’, ‘nurse health care manpower’, ‘health manpower’, ‘healthcare manpower’, ‘health professional’, ‘practitioner’, ‘quality of working life’, ‘quality of work life’, ‘QWL’ and ‘QoWL’. Results: A total of 56 articles researching QWL were identified, of which 16 papers met the inclusion criteria. In those papers, the first study of QWL was published in 1994. Asia, America, and Europe had published seven, six and four papers, respectively. The number of papers that focus on QWL of nurses (n=9, 52.9%) was the most concerned sector. There are over 200 participants (n=9, 52.9%) in the major studies. The factors that affect QWL are job satisfaction, homework interface, working conditions, compensation, human relations, management-personnel relations and support. Conclusion: Nowadays, there are nine countries that focus on QWL of healthcare staffs by researching and assessing concerned factors to enhance worker’s satisfaction and support workers to be better manager change and transition.

Key words: Quality of working life, QWL, health professional, nurse, systematic review