Emotion work and resilience of nurses and physicians towards Palestinian Authority patients

The relationship between clinical nurses' feelings of underqualification and work withdrawal behavior: the multiple mediating roles of self-disgust and self-efficacy

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of three variables-feelings of underqualification, self-disgust, and self-efficacy-on work withdrawal behavior, with the aim of drawing attention to the mental health of nurses.

Methods

A total of 300 nurses were recruited in Shandong Province, China for the survey. Participants completed the General Information Questionnaire, the Perceived Inadequate Qualifications Scale, the Work Withdrawal Behavior Scale, the Self-Disgust Scale, and the General Self-Efficacy Scale. The potential relationships between these variables were explored.

Results

The work withdrawal behavior of nurses in this study is characterized as being at a lower middle level. Work withdrawal behavior was positively correlated with feelings of underqualification and self-disgust, while showing a negative correlation with self-efficacy. Self-disgust and self-efficacy indirectly influence perceived underqualification and work withdrawal behavior. Both the mediating effect and the chain mediating effect were found to be significant.

Conclusion

Self-disgust and feelings of underqualification can aggravate the work withdrawal behavior of nurses, while improving self-efficacy can help reduce this behavior. Nursing managers should create opportunities for skill development, prioritize the physical and mental health of nurses, and take steps to minimize work withdrawal behavior, thereby improving the quality of clinical nursing.

Parental Burnout-A Model of Risk Factors and Protective Resources Among Mothers of Children with/Without Special Needs

Parents of children With Special Needs and Disabilities (W-SND) who require long-term healthcare are at high risk of Parental Burnout (PB). However, most studies have focused on PB among parents of children Without Special Needs (WO-SN). This study aimed to develop a new model explaining PB of mothers of children W-SND/WO-SN. The main hypothesis was that the nexus of correlations between risk factors of PB (severity of child's disability/challenge, perceived caregiver burden) and protective resources (social support, learned resourcefulness, deep emotion work) will explain the variance of PB of mothers of children W-SND and WO-SN. A questionnaire assessing PB, its risk factors, and protective resources was completed by 352 Israeli mothers of children W-SND (mean age 36.9) or WO-SN (mean age 32.3). The child's disabilities were communicative, physical, intellectual and developmental. The main results are that mothers of children W-SND reported higher PB, higher caregiver burden, and a higher severity of disability. About 50% of PB variance was significantly explained by the nexus of correlations between selected risk and protective factors. Among all mothers, the more social support they received, the higher their learned-resourcefulness. However, learned resourcefulness mediates the correlation between caregiver burden and PB among mothers of children W-SND. Accordingly, it is important to increase awareness among healthcare professionals regarding the risk factors and symptoms of PB, and to develop workshops on protective resources in order to prevent PB and promote mothers' well-being. Further research should be conducted among fathers and parents from diverse cultures.

The role of sense of coherence in workplace violence directed at nurses in the shadow of COVID-19: A cross-sectional study

AIMS

To explore (a) the associations between sense of coherence (SOC), previous exposure to COVID-19, and the intention to act violently towards nurses, and (b) the role of SOC and sociodemographic variables as risk or protective factors involved in the intention to act violently.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study with a convenience sample.

METHODS

A structured self-report questionnaire was distributed from February to March 2022. The questionnaire included socioeconomic variables, previous exposure to COVID-19, and a validated questionnaire on SOC. Three vignettes (online shaming, verbal and physical violence) describing nurse-patient communication conflicts were presented to participants. A multinomial logistic regression was conducted to explore the associations with acting violently by comparing three options of no/sometimes/high intention to act violently. The study adhered to STROBE guidelines.

RESULTS

Questionnaires were completed by 808 adults. SOC and religiosity were revealed as protective factors in the three vignettes. Verbal violent behaviour was found to be a risk factor for online and physical violent behaviour intention. Previous exposure to COVID-19, non-academic education, and ethnicity were found to be risk factors for the intention to behave violently toward nurses.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggest that training nurses in practical SOC dimensions (enhancing comprehensible, manageable and meaningful treatment processes) may reduce patients' lack of understanding and frustration and, in turn, reduce the tendency to behave violently.

IMPACT

This study focused on SOC as a variable that may affect the intention to act violently towards nurses. The results reveal that SOC may be a protective factor, where people with higher SOC will have less intention to behave violently towards nurses. The results can provide an insight for nurses, nurse leaders and policymakers, towards supplying coherent and cultural competency treatment processes for patients and assisting nurses in dealing with stressful situations during normal routines and pandemics.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

The questionnaire was distributed among the general public by master's degree nursing students. The students distributed the questionnaires among their friends and acquaintances using a snowball-sampling approach.

Psychological capital and alienation among patients with COVID-19 infection: the mediating role of social support

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 infection continues all over the world, causing serious physical and psychological impacts to patients. Patients with COVID-19 infection suffer from various negative emotional experiences such as anxiety, depression, mania, and alienation, which seriously affect their normal life and is detrimental to the prognosis. Our study is aimed to investigate the effect of psychological capital on alienation among patients with COVID-19 and the mediating role of social support in this relationship.

METHODS

The data were collected in China by the convenient sampling. A sample of 259 COVID-19 patients completed the psychological capital, social support and social alienation scale and the structural equation model was adopted to verify the research hypotheses.

RESULTS

Psychological capital was significantly and negatively related to the COVID-19 patients' social alienation (p < .01). And social support partially mediated the correlation between psychological capital and patients' social alienation (p < .01).

CONCLUSION

Psychological capital is critical to predicting COVID-19 patients' social alienation. Social support plays an intermediary role and explains how psychological capital alleviates the sense of social alienation among patients with COVID-19 infection.

Playing the Role of a Nurse in a Virtual Reality Simulation: A Safe Environment for Emotion Management

BACKGROUND

Nurses' successful emotional coping with unpleasant emotions triggered by intense clinical situations is associated with better-quality patient care. Nursing students experience significant challenges with managing their emotions in clinical practice.

PURPOSE

To evaluate a virtual reality (VR)-based simulation as a platform for emotional management training.

METHODS

A pretest-posttest research design was used to study sophomore nursing students (n = 75) while learning with a VR simulation.

RESULTS

Playing the role of a nurse in a VR hospital triggered an emotional dissonance to uncover students' management strategies, specifically deep cognitive acting and surface acting strategies. Surface acting emphasizes emotions that are displayed but not genuinely experienced and was negatively associated with posttest knowledge scores (r =-0.34, P < .05).

CONCLUSION

Learning with VR can provide a safe environment both for acquiring knowledge and for revealing students' emotional management, which, in turn, can be leveraged by educators to redirect the emotion work required in the nursing profession.

Burden of treatment, emotion work and parental burnout of mothers to children with or without special needs: A pilot study

The psychological phenomenon of Parental Burnout (PB) results from an imbalance between continuous exposure to chronic parenting stress and available coping resources. The study’s aim was to examine relationships between mothers’ perceived burden of treatment and PB, and their ability to utilize emotion work (EW) as a psychological coping resource. Ninety-eight Israeli mothers (46 had children with special needs with disabilities—W-SND, and 52 had children without special needs—WO-SN) completed questionnaires assessing their perception of burden of treatment, EW and PB. According to the findings, mothers of children W-SND reported significantly higher PB, a higher perceived burden of treatment and deeper EW than mothers of children WO-SN. Additionally, among all the mothers, a positive significant correlation was found between perceived burden of treatment and PB, while among mothers of children W-SND, positive correlations were found between their perceived burden of treatment and deep EW, and between deep EW and PB. These findings suggest that among mothers of children W-SND, PB is related to their perception of the burden of treatment and to performing deep EW. Additional psychological, cultural and environmental factors should be investigated, in order to gain new perspectives regarding PB as a psychological phenomenon that affects parenting and the ability to utilize coping mechanisms for mothers generally and for mothers of children W-SND especially.