The Moral Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nurses’ Burnout, Work Satisfaction and Adaptive Work Performance: The Role of Autobiographical Memories of Potentially Morally Injurious Events and Basic Psychological Needs

Mihaela Alexandra Gherman, Laura Arhiri, Andrei Corneliu Holman and Camelia Soponaru
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Mihaela Alexandra Gherman: Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Str. Toma Cozma 3, 700554 Iasi, Romania
Laura Arhiri: Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Str. Toma Cozma 3, 700554 Iasi, Romania
Andrei Corneliu Holman: Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Str. Toma Cozma 3, 700554 Iasi, Romania
Camelia Soponaru: Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Str. Toma Cozma 3, 700554 Iasi, Romania

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 13, 1-22

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unprecedented exposure to Potentially Morally Injurious Events (PMIEs) for nurses, in which they were both moral transgressors and moral victims, with deleterious consequences on their psycho-social health and functioning. Our experimental design compared memories of PMIEs with memories of severe moral transgressions (SMTs), in which participants were only moral transgressors. Drawing from Self-Determination Theory and research on moral auto-biographical episodic memories, we assessed a conceptual model describing the impact of recalling a single PMIE or SMT event on nurses’ burnout, work satisfaction and adaptive performance. Our convenience sample comprised 614 Romanian nurses, and data was analyzed with path analysis, general linear modelling, and t -tests. Findings showed that memories of PMIEs, compared to SMTs, were more autonomy thwarting, being associated with more controlled work motivation, less moral learning, higher burnout, less work satisfaction, and adaptive performance. Burnout, moral learning, and work satisfaction were significant mediators of the relationships between PMIE and SMT recall and, respectively, adaptive performance. Our results highlight the urgency for organizational practices of moral repair for nurses after the pandemic, along with interventions meant to increase their autonomy and self-determined work motivation.

Keywords: potentially morally injurious event (PMIE); work satisfaction; autonomy; work motivation; COVID-19 pandemic; adaptive performance; nurses; burnout; episodic memories; self-determination theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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