Positive benefits of caring on nurses’ motivation and well-being: A diary study about the role of emotional regulation abilities at work

Abstract

El acceso a la versión del editor puede requerir la suscripción del recurso Access to the published version may require subscription AbstractBackground: Recent research reveals that not all job demands have negative effects on workers' well-being and suggests that the negative or positive effects of specific job demands depend on the occupational sector. Specifically, emotional job demands form the heart of the work for nurses and for this reason they can be interpreted by nurses as a challenge that promotes motivation and well-being among these professionals, especially if personal and job resources become available. Objectives:The study had two objectives. First, to examine whether daily emotional demands within a nursing work context have a positive effect on nurses' daily motivation at work (vigour) and well-being at home (vitality and positive affect). Second, to explore whether this positive effect could be enhanced by nurses' emotional regulation abilities.Design: This research used a diary design to explore daily experiences and to analyse how variations in specific job or personal characteristics can affect levels of motivation and wellbeing across days.Participants: Fifty-three nurses working in different Spanish hospitals and primary health care centres completed a general questionnaire and a diary booklet over 5 consecutive working days in two different moments, after work and at night (N= 53 participants and N = 265 observations). Results:In line with our hypotheses, multi-level analyses revealed that, on the one hand, daylevel emotional demands at work had a positive effect on vigour at work and on vitality at home. On the other hand, analyses showed that nurses with higher emotional regulation abilities have more motivation at work and well-being at home when they have to face high emotional demands at work, showing a spillover effect after work. Conclusions:These findings support the idea that emotional demands from the nursing profession can act as challenges which promote motivation and well-being, especially if internal emotional resources become available. Key words: emotional job demands; emotional regulation; nursing; positive affect; vigour; vitality.• What is already known about the topic?-Several studies show that job demands are positively associated with emotional exhaustion, while personal and job resources are positively related with engagement atwork.-Recent research shows that specific job demands (e.g. emotional demands) may be interpreted as positive challenges depending on the occupational sector. Moreover, positive effects from job demands may be attributed to the presence of personal and job resources.-Job demands effects spill over into the non-work domain and continue their influence on the individual after the end of the working day.• What does this paper add?-This study highlights the importance of emotional job demands within a nursing context to promote nurses' daily motivation and well-being. Specifically, emotional job demands were positively associated with vigour at...

Emotional Labour and Wellbeing: What Protects Nurses?

“…Although this is a worthwhile aim, it is crucial for policy makers to consider the risks faced by staff in delivering high quality compassionate care. In accordance with the findings of previous research [25,32], this study has highlighted a strong link between the emotional demands of the caring role and feelings of emotional depletion. Emotional exhaustion will not only affect the wellbeing of healthcare staff, but more indirectly influence the quality of patient care via outcomes such as compassion fatigue [11].…”

“…Insight is also needed into how nurses make empathic connections and construct emotional boundaries when interacting with patients and their families and the implications for their wellbeing over time. A diary study conducted by Donoso and colleagues [32] found that the emotional regulation strategies utilised by nurses underpin their reactions to the emotional demands of practice. In order to develop interventions to help nurses manage emotional interactions more effectively and avoid burnout, insight is needed into the type of emotion regulation strategies that can protect or threaten wellbeing and patient satisfaction.…”

“…Although performing emotional labour can be a source of satisfaction when performed for philanthropic reasons [31], it can threaten the wellbeing of healthcare workers [25]. For example, daily diary research suggests that nurses who have difficulty managing the emotional demands of the job tend to report elevated levels of negative affect, emotional exhaustion, and general fatigue [32]. …”

Resultados preliminares del método RULER en la inteligencia emocional y el compromiso laboral de profesores Españoles

“…Proporcionan mayor tolerancia al estrés y, por tanto, mayor compromiso o emocionalidad positiva en el trabajo (Blanco-Donoso et al, 2015). En contraste, aquellos profesionales con menores habilidades emocionales se caracterizan por realizar una interpretación más negativa de las demandas del entorno, de su propia -645 -http://dx.doi.org/10.14204/ejrep.43.17068 actividad y de su percepción de auto-eficacia, por lo que ponen en marcha estilos de afrontamiento más desadaptativos (Johnston, Hansen, Birney y Stough, 2010).…”

Caring and healing in health care: The evidence base

“…(Corbin, 2008), perhaps justifying some of the disquiet about the limited number of publications in current health care literature dealing with caring or healing. However, both subjects still have a high profile in the nursing literature, including within this journal, which, for example, recently published findings of a study to promote compassionate relationship-centred care for older people, their relatives and staff (Dewar and Nolan, 2013), a study of the positive benefits of caring on nurses' motivation and wellbeing (Donoso et al, 2015) and an elegant qualitative study on the caring culture amongst nurses (Rytterstrom et al, 2009). Jean Watson has written extensively on caring within the nursing profession, and related this to the development of healing relationships (Watson, 1997(Watson, , 2012.…”