Factors influencing work engagement among psychiatric nurses in Japan

Aim To identify the factors influencing work engagement among psychiatric nurses. Background Work engagement is an essential outcome that promotes nurses' performance, but studies investigating its influencing factors remain limited in psychiatric settings. We hypothesized that job resources and personal resources positively predict psychiatric nurses' work engagement and have a particularly positive impact on engagement when job demand is high. Methods This cross-sectional study included 425 Japanese psychiatric nurses. Data regarding demographics, job resources, personal resources (emotional intelligence), job demand (patients' attitude towards nurses) and work engagement were collected followed by data analysis using hierarchical multiple regression. Results Reward, supervisor support, nurse-physician collaboration, other-emotion appraisal and use of emotions were positively related to work engagement. Patients' unpleasant attitude towards nurses boosted the association of reward and supervisor support with work engagement. Conclusions Certain job resources, empathic ability and self-motivation ability may enhance work engagement. Furthermore, reward and supervisor support may be particularly useful when psychiatric nurses face patients' unpleasant attitude. Implications for Nursing Management For enhancing psychiatric nurses' work engagement, nursing leaders should educate nurses' skills related to empathy and self-motivation, consider whether nurses are confronted with patients' unpleasant attitude, and improve the job resources.