Empathic nurses with sufficient job resources are work‐engaged professionals who deliver more individualized care

Abstract

AimsThis study examined whether nurse work engagement mediated the associations of job resources (collegial support and autonomy) and a personal resource (empathy) with individualized care delivery, in both hospital and long‐term care settings. We also explored potential setting‐specific differences in how strongly the resources were associated with work engagement and individualized care delivery among nurses.DesignWe conducted a cross‐sectional study in three hospitals and two long‐term care facilities.MethodsIn total, 454 nurses completed a web‐based survey including validated measures on resources (collegial support, autonomy, empathy), work engagement and individualized care delivery. Data were analysed using mediation and moderated mediation analyses.ResultsIn both settings, all resources were indirectly associated with individualized care delivery via work engagement. Empathy was also directly associated with individualized care delivery, and a stronger association was found in the long‐term care setting than in the hospital setting.ConclusionThe present study showed work engagement to mediate the associations of job resources and empathy with individualized care delivery in both hospital and long‐term care settings. Individualized care delivery was furthermore directly facilitated by high levels of empathy, especially among nurses working in long‐term care settings.Implications for the profession and/or patient carePatients may benefit from better individualized care delivery by empathic nurses who are more work‐engaged in the face of sufficient job resources in their practice environment.ImpactNurses are better able to deliver individualized care when provided with sufficient job resources (collegial support and autonomy) that support their being work‐engaged professionals. Furthermore, empathic nurses also reported being able to better support patient individuality. These findings can be translated to policies of hospitals and long‐term care facilities, to optimize job resources and enhance empathy and thus facilitate the support of patient individuality by nurses.Reporting methodThis study adhered to the STROBE guidelines.Patient or public contributionNurses were involved in the design and data collection of the study.

Updating Factors Influencing Nurse Work Engagement in the Hospital Settings: A Systematic Review

“… Giménez-Espert, Prado-Gascó, Soto-Rubio 48 Autonomy Positively related to work engagement. Scheepers, Vollmann, Cramm, Nieboer 45 Affective commitment Significantly correlated with work engagement. Fukuzaki, Iwata, Ooba, Takeda, Inoue 35 Work ethics Significantly related to work engagement.…”

“…Also, more empathy is associated with providing more individualized care through more work engagement. Scheepers, Vollmann, Cramm, Nieboer 45 Job-related Psychological Characteristics Emotional labor Emotional labor includes “emotional control effort in the profession”, “patient-focused emotional suppression”, and emotional pretense by norms, which has a function relationship with work engagement. Yao, Wei, Hu, Li, Zhang 46 Conflict management styles Conflict management styles are related to work engagement.…”

“… 44 Self-compassion significantly affects work engagement, 31 while empathy is correlated with work engagement, with higher levels associated with more individualized care provision. 45 …”

“…These characteristics include a wide range of significant factors positively related to work engagement identified from 10 studies. The factors include emotional labor (the effort invested in managing emotions at work), 46 conflict management styles, 47 role conflict, 48 autonomy, 45 affective commitment to one’s job, 35 work ethics, 33 work values, 49 work meaningfulness, 50 job crafting, 51 learning goals, 51 and the ability to cope with organizational change. 24 Among these factors, only two have mediated roles which job crafting mediated the correlation between “learning goal orientation” and work engagement, 51 and work meaningfulness mediated and moderated the correlation between “ethical leadership” and work engagement.…”

“… Kohnen, De Witte, Schaufeli, Dello, Bruyneel, Sermeus 43 Job resources (collegial support and autonomy) Positively significantly correlated with work engagement. Scheepers, Vollmann, Cramm, Nieboer 45 Possibilities for professional development Possibilities for professional development are positively related to work engagement. Possibilities for professional development mediate the relationship between supervisor support and work engagement and between college support and work engagement.…”