Re-employment Hospital Types of Early Career Nurses and Changes in Work-Life Balance

Background: This study aimed to determine the hospital types of re-employment in early career nurses and identify differences in changes in the work-life balance according to the re-employment hospital types.Methods: A longitudinal design was used. Participants were 90 nurses who had resigned from their first jobs and were re-employed at hospitals within two years of obtaining nurse licenses. They were recruited through a recruitment notice on the nationwide nurse online website. Data were collected twice before and after re-employment using the Internet survey method. The data were analyzed using a paired t-test, McNemar test, and repeated measures ANOVA.Results: The nursing work environment, job satisfaction, and work-life balance were significantly increased at the re-employed workplace compared to the first job. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that only the change in work-life balance demonstrated that the interaction between the group and time was significant in the size and type of hospital.Conclusions: The findings show that the change in work-life balance increased more in the case of re-employment with downward size or type of hospital, compared to that of upward or the same hospital re-employment. Therefore, efforts are needed to improve the work-life balance of early career nurses. To this end, nurse managers must adjust the work patterns that cause imbalances in nurses’work-life and plan management strategies to improve self-development and growth.