The Relationship Between Emotional Labor and Mental Health Among Nurses at Catholic Hospitals in Taiwan

Wednesday, 24 July 2013

Hui-Fang Su, RN, PhD
Department of Health Care Management, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taiepi, Taiwan
Ching-Youn Lee, RN, MS
Nursing Department, Saint Mary’s Hospital Luodong, I-Lan, Taiwan, R.O.C., Yilan County, Taiwan
Pi-Ching Hsieh, RN, PhD
Department of Health Care Management, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to the relationship between emotional labor and mental health among nurses of Catholic hospitals in Taiwan.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to understand the factors related to the mental health among nurses of Catholic hospitals in Taiwan.

Purpose: The present study aims to evaluate the relationship between emotional labor and mental health among nurses of Catholic hospitals in Taiwan.

Methods: Based on the cross-sectional and correctional study design, the researcher invited nurses from six Catholic hospitals using Emotional Labor Scale developed by Shang Ping Lin and Self Reporting Questionnaire 20 (SRQ-20) developed by World Health Organization from July 1 to October 30 in 2010.

Results: A total of 653 subjects were invited, and 624 completed questionnaires were returned with an effective response rate of 95.56%. By using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, correlation, and regression analysis in SPSS 18.0, we revealed some findings: (1) Subjects have a relative higher degree of emotional labor (M ± SD = 5.41 ± 1.19) and poorer mental health status (M ± SD = 2.81 ±1.05) with SRQ-20 of 50.4; (2) There were significant difference in emotional display rule, surface acting, and mental health among different groups of educational level, position, and working department; (3) Age and service seniority present a highly positive correlation with emotional display rule, surface acting, and mental health, whereas age is positively associated with deep acting; (4) Emotional display rule, surface acting, frequency and duration of interaction, and deep acting are highly correlated with mental health; (5) Emotional labor accounts for 21% of the variance in mental health.

Conclusion: Nursing staffs bear a high level of emotional labor with an unsatisfactory mental health status. The administrators should pay close attention to the issues.