Positive Psychological Capital Mediates the Association between Burnout and Nursing Performance Outcomes among Hospital Nurses

Minjeong An, Eun Suk Shin, Myoung Yi Choi, Yeonhu Lee, Yoon Young Hwang and Miran Kim
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Minjeong An: College of Nursing, Chonnam National University, 160 Baekseoro, Donggu, Gwangju 61469, Korea
Eun Suk Shin: Department of Nursing, Chonnam National University Hospital, 160 Baekseoro, Donggu, Gwangju 61469, Korea
Myoung Yi Choi: Nursing Department, Chonnam National University Hwasun Hospital, 322 Seoyangro, Hwasun-eup, Hwasun-gun, Jeollanamdo 58128, Korea
Yeonhu Lee: Department of Nursing, Chonnam National University Hospital, 160 Baekseoro, Donggu, Gwangju 61469, Korea
Yoon Young Hwang: Seoul Women’s College of Nursing, 38 Ganhodaero, Seodaemungu, Seoul 03617, Korea
Miran Kim: Department of Nursing, Chunnam Techno University, 113 Daehakro, Okgwamyeon, Gokseong, Jeollanamdo 58128, Korea

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 16, 1-12

Abstract: Nursing burnout is associated with reduced nursing performance outcomes. Positive psychological capital is known to play an important role in improving workers’ job performance. However, the association among the three variables has rarely been addressed. The purpose of this cross-sectional descriptive study was to explore the association between burnout and nursing performance outcomes among Korean nurses working at a tertiary hospital and the mediating role of psychological capital in this relationship. Recruited through convenience sampling, a total of 285 nurses provided data on their demographic characteristics and completed a structured questionnaire consisting of items from the Professional Quality of Life Scale (burnout), Nursing Performance Scale, and Psychology Capital Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, student’s t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and multiple linear regression analyses were used to analyze data. The significance of the mediation effect was obtained using a bootstrap approach with the PROCESS macro. The mean age of participants was 30.51 years, and most participants were females (94.0%) and unmarried (71.6%); more than half (57.5%) experienced a severe workload. The average (±standard deviation) scores of burnout, nursing performance outcomes, and positive psychological capital were 28.77 ± 4.93, 2.98 ± 0.32, and 3.19 ± 0.45, respectively. Burnout was associated with nursing performance among clinical nurses (β = −0.20, p < 0.001). Positive psychological capital mediated the association between burnout and nursing performance outcomes (β = 0.41, p < 0.001). These findings contribute to the understanding that burnout among nurses could be reduced by increased positive psychological capital, which results in improved performance outcomes. The findings also indicate that interventions to improve positive psychological capital should be developed and implemented for nurses’ burnout management and improvement in nursing performance outcomes.

Keywords: burnout; mediation; nurses; work performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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