The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of stress control training via using podcasts on work-life conflict in female residents of Iran University of Medical Sciences in 2020–2021. Given the research results, as the level of significance is less than 0.05, the research hypothesis has been confirmed with a confidence of 0.095, i.e. there is a significant difference between the control group and the podcast stress training group.
Zarei and Kazemipour conducted a study entitled “the effectiveness of work-family conflict management training on increasing the quality of work life of women working in hospitals”. The results of covariance analysis indicated that training in work-family conflict management skills is effective in increasing the quality of work life of employees. Based on the results, it can be stated that using work-family conflict management skills helps female employees working in hospitals to be able to cope with undesirable problems and stresses of conflict between work and family roles and thus increase their quality of work life (7). In a study aimed at investigating work-family conflict in nurses working in educational and medical centers in Rasht (conducted as a cross-sectional descriptive study), Hesabi et al have indicated that conflict between job and family roles is an important and influential factor in nurses’ performance and various measures are required to be adopted to reduce the effects of these interferences in the employees’ working life (8). A study entitled “the effect of stress management on work stress and work-life conflict in nurses” has been conducted by Alavi Arjmand. The results indicated that the mean of work-life conflict between the experimental and control groups (using the independent t-test) was not significantly different before the intervention. However, one month after the intervention (stress management workshop) the mean of work-life conflict in the experimental group was significantly different. Moreover, in comparing the mean of work-life conflict in the experimental group before and one month after the intervention (0.001), a significant difference was observed by using the paired t-test. While no significant difference was observed in the control group. The results indicated that the mean of work stress between the experimental and control groups (using the independent t-test) was not significantly different before the intervention. However, one month after the intervention, the mean of work stress in the intervention group was significantly reduced. In addition, in comparing the mean of work stress in the experimental group before and one month after the intervention (using paired t-test), a significant difference was observed. While no significant difference was observed for the control group (9). A study has been conducted to investigate the effect of using podcast as a tool for cooperative learning by Zare’i and Ghasemi in 2015. This study attempted to analyze the effect of this tool on the statistical components of the study included all undergraduate students in the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of Allameh Tabatabae’i University. The results of their study showed that using podcasts as a new tool in the educational process affects various components of positive mutual correlation, individual responsibility, group processing, social skills and interaction in the cooperative learning process (10). Based on the results of a study conducted by Waqet et al, the learners were generally satisfied with the podcast experience and gave a positive feedback about its portability and flexibility (11).
In explaining this result, it can be added that the podcast teaching method (being one of the electronic teaching methods) is not only more compatible with the educational needs of health centers, but it can also reduce the learners’ transportation costs. Obviously, based on what stated above, the learners’ satisfaction in this group must be higher than that of the participants of the traditional educational method. Considering the work and family preoccupations of the residents, as well as the interference of face-to-face retraining with their working hours or leisure time, using e-learning method as an alternative or complementary method to the traditional training method can be a proper approach for retraining medical staff that can reduce work-family conflict.
Based on the findings of this study, stress management training via podcasts has had a positive and significant effect on residents’ work-life conflict. Stress control training can reduce work the residents’ stress and work-life conflict. Thus, training stress control skills in the residents’ managerial, clinical and educational areas seems to be essential.
Work stress and work-life conflict can lead to special problems in management and work affairs such as increased absenteeism, reduced productivity, decreased work standards, lack of motivation in the workplace, reduced job satisfaction, leaving one’s job, and lack of human resources in this profession. Therefore, hospital managers can rely on the results of this study and provide continuous training of stress control skills through podcasts and virtual methods in the form of seminars, retraining sessions and workshops, along with increased work and family support for residents; this will result in reduced stress and conflict. Moreover, training the abovementioned skills will help residents balance work and life, and in this way, they will be more relaxed in taking care of their patients and clients; this will result in an increased quality of care in health centers as well as the clients’ increased satisfaction.
Training is one of the cornerstones of developing competencies, skills and capabilities in different parts of an organization. Because of its flexibility and increased access to the curriculum, podcast training makes learning both adaptive and interactive and reduces the learning costs and makes learning accessible at any of the day.
Although proper investment in developing access infrastructure and using podcasts for training can be satisfactory for learners, the readiness of learners to become familiar with and use this technology, the Internet, and computers as well as the knowledge of the benefits of these technologies are factors affecting the effectiveness and satisfaction of these teaching methods. Therefore, more research is required to be conducted to identify the effect of podcast content on learners’ learning and satisfaction.
Work-life conflict has been considered not only for residents but also for the employees of other medical sciences groups. Work-life conflict leads to individual, familial and organizational problems. Finding a suitable solution to deal with and prevent conflicts in the two areas of work and life is one of the professional priorities of residents. One of the methods for establishing balance in two domains is training stress control skills. The findings of the present study and its comparison with the experiences of other researchers show that stress management and control training has an effective role in reducing work-life conflict in both work and life. It is, thus, suggested that stress management and control skills be taught to medical residents in the form of short-term training courses or training workshops.
Research limitations
A. In the researcher’s control
Collecting information through a questionnaire (it is suggested that future researchers scrutinize this issue qualitatively to obtain richer results).
B. Out of the researcher’s control
COVID-19 pandemic has created more challenges for hospital environment, and this has disturbed the normal conditions. Moreover, the participants’ conditions in different phases were different in terms of work shifts, personal motivations.