914 - THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG STRESSORS ASSOCIATED WITH PATIENT INTERACTION, EMOTIONAL WORK, AND EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION IN PSYCHIATRIC NURSES

Session: P_D08S003 - Poster Session 3 - Division 8
AUTHORS:
Orlando Jacopo (Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University ~ Kobe ~ Japan) , Kato Yoshiko (Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University ~ Kobe ~ Japan)
Abstract text:
Introduction:
In light of the growing recognition that mitigating burnout among psychiatric nurses is a critical issue, this study aimed to provide insights that may contribute to the development of concrete strategies to alleviate emotional exhaustion, the core symptom of burnout.


Purpose:
The objective of this study was to examine the relationships among stressors associated with patient interaction (patient-related stressors), emotional work, and emotional exhaustion in psychiatric nurses.


Method:　
Data were collected from 162 psychiatric nurses (mean age = 38.24 years, SD = 11.59). On average, participants had 14.84 (SD = 10.83) years of nursing experience and 5.77 (SD = 5.01) years of psychiatric nursing experience. Validated scales were administered to assess patient-related stressors, emotional work (including negative and empathetic/positive emotional expressions toward patients), and emotional exhaustion.


Results:
The covariance structure analysis revealed that patient-related stressors were directly associated with emotional exhaustion (B = .08, p < .01) and with negative emotional expression toward patients (B = .06, p < .001), which in turn was associated with emotional exhaustion (B = .36, p < .01). Furthermore, the bootstrap mediation analysis indicated a significant indirect effect of patient-related stressors on emotional exhaustion via negative emotional expression toward patients (B = .16, p < .01).
Moreover, the analysis further showed that patient-related stressors tended to positively correlate with empathetic/positive emotional expression toward patients (B = .03, p < .05), which was not significantly associated with emotional exhaustion (B = .01, p = .93).


Conclusions:
To mitigate emotional exhaustion, it may be effective to alleviate negative emotional expression toward patients by promoting regulation of negative emotions caused by patient-related stressors. A key future challenge will be to apply the findings of this study to reduce emotional exhaustion among psychiatric nurses through intervention studies and the development of practical programs for clinical settings.