The psychosocial work environment and burnout among Swedish registered and assistant nurses: The main, mediating, and moderating role of empowerment

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to explore: the main effect of empowerment on burnout; empowerment as a mediator between the work environment and burnout; and empowerment as a moderator of the association between the work environment and burnout. In order to explore these effects, multiple regression analyses were performed on questionnaire data from 838 registered nurses and 518 assistant nurses in Sweden. The analyses showed that: empowerment has a negative association to burnout; empowerment has a mediating effect between the work environment (especially for control and social support) and burnout; and the moderating effect of empowerment on the association between the work environment and burnout was weak. The results suggest that: empowerment explains variation with regard to burnout over and above what can be explained by established work situation dimensions; the improvement of the work environment is associated with a higher sense of empowerment which, in turn, is related to lower degrees of burnout; and individual and group differences should be considered in workplace health promotion.

Psychological Empowerment and Child Welfare Worker Outcomes: A Path Analysis

“…Guided by the results of prior empirical studies (e.g., Carless 2004; Chen and Scannapieco 2010; Mor Barak et al 2006;Mulki et al 2008;Hochwälder 2007;Ö rtqvist and Wincent 2006;Seibert et al 2004), the present study proposed a model that specified psychological empowerment as a mediator of the relationships between two aspects of work environment (quality of supervision and role ambiguity) and two worker outcomes (emotional exhaustion and intentions to remain employed in child welfare) (Fig. 1).…”

Stress Coping Mechanisms and Professional Burnout among Latvian Nurses

“…Therefore, the typical psychosocial issues for nurses are the burnout syndrome and compassion fatigue. The burnout syndrome is mentioned as one of the main health issues concerning work among the professionals in health-care (Hochwalder, 2007). The most frequently mentioned stress factors for nurses in study performed in Latvia were "risk of infection", "Inadequate remuneration for work", "Emotionally intensive work with people", "Large (inadequate) amount of work" and "Intensive work" (Circenis, Millere, 2012).…”

Family nursing hospital training and the outcome on job demands, control and support

“…Research on nurses' working environment is increasingly based on the Demand-Control-Support (DCS) model where, according to Karasek and Theorell (1990), the combination of job demands and job control defines four types of jobs: high strain (high demand, low control), passive (low demand, low control), low strain (low demand, high control), and active (high demand, high control). The DCS model has been related to important concepts, such as clinical autonomy (e.g., decision latitude), job demands, and support in the work environment (Chiu et al, 2013;Chungkham et al, 2013;Griep et al, 2009;Hochwälder, 2007;Hökerberg et al, 2010;Sundin et al, 2007). Furthermore, the authors of the DCS model have proposed that having decision latitude such as autonomy over work processes will reduce a worker's stress and increase learning.…”