Emotional Labor and Burnout of Public Health Nurses during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mediating Effects of Perceived Health Status and Perceived Organizational Support

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the mediating effects of perceived health status (PHS) and perceived organizational support (POS) in the association between emotional labor and burnout in public health nurses (PHNs). The participants were 207 PHNs convenience sampled from 30 public health centers and offices in Jeju, Korea. Data regarding emotional labor, PHS, POS, and burnout were collected between February and March 2021 using a structured questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed by Pearson’s correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. Burnout of PHNs was positively correlated with emotional labor (r = 0.64, p < 0.001) and negatively correlated with PHS (r = −0.51, p < 0.001) and POS (r = −0.51, p < 0.001). In the association between emotional labor and burnout, PHS (B = −1.36, p < 0.001) and POS (B = −0.42, p = 0.001) had a partial mediating effect. Reduction of burnout among PHNs requires not only effective management of emotional labor but also personal and organizational efforts to improve PHS and POS.

Job Demands, Resources and Burnout Among Polish Nurses During the Late Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic: The Mediating Role of Emotional Labor

“…With respect to the relationship between organizational support considered to be a job resource and burnout, we found its significant negative association. This finding is in line with a previous study according to which the perception of a pleasant working environment and the sense of receiving organizational care could reduce burnout among medical staff ( 50 ). Although the relationship between JD-R and burnout is well established in subject-related literature ( 22 ), most studies were conducted in the Western countries, whereas our results show that this association is consistent outside the Western context as well.…”

“…It is important especially in the context of COVID-19 pandemic, during which many nurses perceived their workplace as potentially harmful and dangerous. As previous studies reported, organizational support during COVID-19 pandemic was associated with lower level of anxiety ( 79 ), lower burnout occurrence ( 50 ) and increased work engagement among nurses ( 80 ). Moreover, as we showed, organizational support could reduce burnout in nurses via a decrease in surface acting.…”

“…With respect to the relationship between perceived organizational support and emotional labor, previous studies demonstrated that the high level of organizational support leads to high levels of effort in deep acting, whereas in the case of feeling a low level of organizational support, nurses simply choose a less effortful way, i.e., surface acting, to perform emotional labor ( 49 , 50 ). Therefore, we expect that higher perceived organizational support will be associated with lower surface acting and, in turn, with lower burnout level among nurses.…”

Investigating Frontline Nurse Stress: Perceptions of Job Demands, Organizational Support, and Social Support During the Current COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Other studies reported the effects of work stress on nursing staff burnout (8,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). However, only few studies investigated the effects of organizational and community support in addressing the adverse psychological effects of COVID-19, and its relationship to the coping strategies deployed by the nursing staff (16)(17)(18)(19).…”

Relationship between emotional labor and sense of career success among community nurses in China, Beijing: A cross-sectional study based on latent class analysis

“…Nurses should know and control the process required for managing their emotions and expressions [ 9 ]. Excessive emotional labor can cause mental health problems [ 10 ], musculoskeletal symptoms [ 11 ], cardiovascular disease [ 12 ], and other physical health problems [ 13 ]. Although emotional labor is an important part of nursing practice, it is usually invisible, neglected and under estimated [ 14 ].…”