Relationship between emotional exhaustion and work stress, thought suppression, difficulties in emotion regulation in clinical nurses / 中国职业医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the current status of emotional exhaustion among clinical nurses and its relationship with work stress, thought suppression, difficulties in emotion regulation. Methods A totally of 1 159 clinical nurses from 10 cities in Henan Province and Fujian Province were enrolled as the research subjects using grabbing random balls method. And their status of work stress, thought suppression, difficulties in emotion regulation and emotional exhaustion were investigated by Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale, White Bear Suppression Inventory, Brief Version of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale and Emotional Exhaustion Scale. Results The scores for work stress, thought suppression, difficulties in emotion regulation, emotional exhaustion were (23.5±3.8), (47.4±6.5), (54.1±7.2), (11.7±4.2), respectively. Among them, 40.0% of nurses experienced emotional exhaustion. Bootstrap analysis results showed that work stress positively affected emotional exhaustion among clinical nurses [standardized partial regression coefficient (β)=0.42, 95% confidence intervals (CI)： 0.36-0.44］. Work stress affected emotional exhaustion through thought suppression (β=0.16, 95%CI： 0.14-0.20), difficulties in emotion regulation (β=0.16, 95%CI： 0.14-0.19), and the chain mediating role of thought suppression and difficulties in emotion regulation (β=0.07, 95%CI： 0.04-0.09). Conclusion Emotional exhaustion symptoms are prevalent among clinical nurses. Work stress directly and indirectly influences thought suppression, difficulties in emotion regulation and emotional exhaustion of nurses.