The Moderator Role of Passion for Work in the Association between Work Stressors and Secondary Traumatic Stress: A Cross‐Level Diary Study among Health Professionals of Intensive Care Units

Abstract

Background: Secondary traumatic stress (STS), a construct formed by compassion fatigue, shattered assumptions, and symptomatology, has been scarcely studied in intensive care units (ICU). In these units, healthcare workers encounter daily work stressors which impact on their health and well-being. Also, previous literature revealed a passion for caring among these workers, finding two types: harmonious passion, which may protect them against negative outcomes, and obsessive passion, which may boost negative consequences. We aim to study whether both types of passion could moderate the relationships between daily work stressors and STS. Methods: In all, 265 assessments were collected at ICUs from different hospitals in Spain through a diary approach (53 health workers 9 5 days at two time points per day). Results: First, daily work stressors were positive predictors of symptomatology; secondly, dispositional harmonious passion was a negative predictor of both compassion fatigue and shattered assumptions, also presenting a buffering effect between daily work stressors and daily shattered assumptions. Finally, dispositional obsessive passion showed positive relationships with both shattered assumptions and symptomatology, also presenting a boosting effect between daily work stressors and daily symptomatology. Conclusions: This study allows us to deepen our understanding of STS in ICUs and to boost preventive proposals. Practical implications are discussed.

The Role of Healthcare Professionals’ Passion in Predicting Secondary Traumatic Stress and Posttraumatic Growth in the Face of COVID-19: A Longitudinal Approach

“…In fact, these statements could be an explanation of the high levels of harmonious passion maintained over time in the two waves, as a positive and stable resource to keep optimum levels of well-being. Looking closely, previous findings revealed that this harmonious passion prevents compassion fatigue, as the emotional fatigue related to STS [ 25 ], that implies the effect of this passion in the emotional component. Linked to that, these findings reveal as well how this harmonious passion could change the relationship of the professional with the job demands, as previous authors confirmed [ 43 ].…”

“…No interaction effect was found concerning STS, thus, we need to continue improving the variables studied to check those resources with greater impact. This means that harmonious passion cannot particularly protect employees that are confronted with high job demands during the pandemic, and previous studies have found this protector role when job demands are high if we consider the cognitive changes of the trauma, that is, shattered assumptions [ 25 ]. Possibly, harmoniously passionate workers are able to see less overload and more job control during their working times [ 43 ], but the excessive increase of job demands during this pandemic makes it difficult to moderate this relationship.…”

“…The role of passion for work in healthcare professionals has arisen in recent years and constitutes a good preventative model in the field of burnout [ 24 ] and STS [ 25 ]. Passion for work has been defined as the inclination and love towards one’s work that is considered as pleasant and important, that people identify with and decide to invest a great amount of time and resources on [ 26 , 27 ].…”

“…Concerning STS, new findings reveal that this passion for work, specifically harmonious passion, may protect people from STS, having a direct effect on the first hand, and may moderate the relationships between job demands and STS on the other hand. Indeed, those healthcare workers with high harmonious passion are those with less increase in STS when work stressors arise [ 25 ] and thus have a buffering role. These findings suggest that the role of harmonious passion as a protector seems undeniably relevant, buffering the impact of high demands maintained over time and preventing healthcare workers from negative consequences [ 36 ].…”

Passion in the pit: the effects of harmonious and obsessive passion on nurse burnout

“…If we consider HP and OP to be resources in the context of COR, the next step is to appraise how they impact stress. Previous research in health-care settings has found both a negative (Bélanger et al , 2015; Moreno-Jiménez et al , 2021) and null relationship (Moreno-Jiménez et al , 2020) of HP with various forms of stress, whereas OP has consistently shown a positive relationship with stress (Bélanger et al , 2015; Moreno-Jiménez et al , 2020). More broadly, meta-analysis found a negative correlation for work-related HP ( k = 3, N = 630, ρ = −0.44; 80% credibility interval (CI) [−0.49, −0.38]) and a positive correlation for work-related OP ( k = 3, N = 630, ρ = 0.14; 80% CI [0.04, 0.24]) with psychological distress (Pollack et al , 2020).…”