Quality of life and working conditions in intensive care, what are we talking about?

Abstract

Quality of Working Life (QWL) is a concept whose historical evolution is international. By making the link between productivity and health at work, it is essential to the management of companies, hospitals and more particularly intensive care units that currently suffer from their lack of attractiveness.

This article proposes definitions of QWL to be used as a basis for reflecting on the levers that can be mobilized in the QWL approach. The proposed definitions are multifactorial, evolutionary and not fixed. Some components of QWL can be difficult to identify or even quantify because of the order of feeling. Others are more tangible and quantifiable, making it possible to propose levers for action. We illustrate these definitions by our experience in intensive care intensive care units, a particular place in the nursing environment, while placing these reflections in the administrative, managerial and legislative evolutions of the health system over several decades. These have significantly changed hospital operations, transforming the organization and working conditions, and questioning both nursing values and quality of life at work.