The Association of Nurse Burnout with Patient Satisfaction from Nurse Perspective Mediated by Nurse Job Satisfaction and Caring Behavior

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic represents a substantial threat to world health, economic stability, and civilization in general. In the COVID-19 era, health workers, particularly frontline nurses, face increasing pressure which further affects patient satisfaction. However, empirical studies that connected burnout, job satisfaction, and caring behavior toward patient satisfaction from the nurses’ point of view are still scarce. Purpose: This study aimed to explore the relationship between nurse burnout with patient satisfaction mediated by work satisfaction and nurse caring behavior at a private COVID-19 referral hospital from the nurses’ perspective. Methods: A quantitative survey with a cross-sectional approach was conducted from March to April 2021 to test the framework on the population obtained from full-time nurses who worked at a private COVID-19 referral hospital in Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The researcher analyzed the empirical data generated from purposive sampling resulting in 170 eligible respondents. Data were collected through a self-completed online questionnaire with the Likert scale. The data analysis deployed the PLS-SEM approach. Results: The findings indicate that nurse burnout is associated significantly (p<0.05 and CI 95%) with the delivery of patient satisfaction from the nurses’ perspective, mediated by job satisfaction and nurses’ caring behavior. The mediation relationship was found with =0.021, while the direct relation from caring behavior to patient satisfaction was =0.277 and from job satisfaction was =0.582. The proposed model demonstrated adequate prediction of patient satisfaction as the dependent variable (R2=0.633). Conclusion: This study concluded that nurse burnout which consists of three dimensions mediated by job satisfaction and caring behavior had an association with patient satisfaction. Increased burnout will result in decreased job satisfaction and caring behavior. This study provides suggestions to the hospital manager to improve the quality of care by understanding nurse burnout and preventing it.