Emotional contagion, empathic concern and communicative responsiveness as variables affecting nurses’ stress and occupational commitment

Abstract

Based on data gathered from registered nurses at two hospitals, this research examined the extent to which empathy variables contributed to nursing stress and occupational commitment. The empathy variables examined were emotional contagion (i.e. sharing the emotions of patients), empathic concern (i.e. being concerned for patients) and communicative effectiveness (i.e. effectively communicating with patients and their families). Nursing stress was explored through the variables of depersonalization, reduced personal accomplishment and emotional exhaustion. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the combination of the three emotional communication variables explained significant proportions of the variance in all three of the stress variables, as well as occupational commitment. The analyses further revealed that a lack of empathic concern and poor communicative responsiveness accounted for significant proportions of the variance in depersonalization. Lack of empathic concern, poor communicative responsiveness and high emotional contagion significantly contributed to reduced personal accomplishment. Emotional contagion explained a significant proportion of the variance in emotional exhaustion. Emotional contagion also significantly reduced occupational commitment. The findings are discussed in terms of nursing education and administration.

The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion and its Influence on Group Behavior

“…For instance, customer service jobs may be very stressful, not only due to overt conflict, but because of the continuous low-grade effect of catching customers' negative moods, particularly in service jobs in which many of the calls involve some sort of problem or negative feedback. This negative contagion can lead to long-term burnout in a sales environment (Verbeke, 1997) or in healthcare jobs in which healthcare providers are in constant contact with people who are ill or depressed (Omdahl & O'Donnell, 1999). Moreover, the contagion process can work in the opposite direction as well: if a customer service worker is in a bad mood, he or she may transfer this negativity to the customer, leading the customer to feel dissatisfied, even if the employee was successful in the cognitive aspects of the encounter (Pugh, 2001).…”

Braving Human Suffering: Death Education and its Relationship to Empathy and Mindfulness

“…The significant increases in cognitive and affective empathy overall may also benefit students when they encounter clients experiencing traumatic death in practice by allowing for greater attunement and sensitivity. Simultaneously, the stabilization of emotion contagion may be protective against vicarious trauma and burnout (Miller et al, 1988;Omdahl & O'Donnell, 1999). Ideally, this would improve providers' ability to meet the needs of grieving and traumatized clients while maintaining their own sense of balance.…”

“…High levels of emotion contagion may place providers at risk for burnout and emotional exhaustion. Thus, it may be beneficial to increase other aspects of empathy while keeping emotion contagion low, since this is the facet of affective empathy most closely linked to adverse outcomes (Miller et al, 1988;Omdahl & O'Donnell, 1999).…”

“…For instance, medical students showed an increase in empathy after an eight-session course about literature portraying doctors and patients (Shapiro, Morrison, & Boker, 2004), and some studies aimed at increasing mindfulness also report increases in overall empathy (Birnie, Speca, & Carlson, 2010;Krasner et al, 2009;Shapiro et al, 1998), pointing to a relationship between these two traits. However, when instruments use subscales, not all subscales of empathy are found to increase (e.g., Birnie et al, 2010;Krasner et al, 2009) and some facets, specifically emotion contagion, in which an individual experiences the Social Work Education 5 emotions of another, may place providers at risk of emotional exhaustion and burnout (Miller, Stiff, & Ellis, 1988;Omdahl & O'Donnell, 1999).…”

The emotional intelligence of a group of critical-care nurses in South Africa

“…The nurses in critical-care work are in a unique environment where they are expected to make critical decisions, being faced with highly-stressful situations and ethical dilemmas on a daily basis (Omdahl & O'Donnell 2005). The physical and emotional work that is expected of these nurses is increasing through changing consumer and organisational demands, through limited resources and by increasing numbers of acutely-ill patients (Vitello-Cicciu 2003).…”