Emotional Exhaustion and Emotional Contagion: Navigating Turnover Intention of Healthcare Personnel

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to examine the role of personal emotions and emotional contagion within organizations on the behavior and attitudes of healthcare personnel. This study is expected to provide a theoretical foundation for reducing resignation behaviors and improving healthcare quality.

Materials and Methods

This study adopted a quantitative research method with a cross-sectional survey through an online questionnaire. The bootstrap method with 5000 iterations was used to validate the role of variables within a 95% confidence interval. SPSS 26.0 and Model 5 in Process 3.4 for SPSS were used for the data analysis.

Results

This research involved 459 healthcare personnel, whose levels of role overload (3.821±0.925), emotional exhaustion (3.436±1.189), and turnover emotional contagion (3.110±1.099) were notably high. Role overload was positively related to turnover intention, with emotional exhaustion as a mediator. Notably, turnover emotional contagion exerted a positive moderating effect.

Conclusion

This study emphasizes the adverse effects of emotional exhaustion and turnover emotional contagion in the Chinese context, offering practical recommendations for medical organizational managers to navigate turnover intention among healthcare personnel. This study suggests paying attention to the emotional state of healthcare personnel and providing adequate support resources. Managers should routinely assess and track turnover emotional contagion within the organization, fostering a positive emotional atmosphere.

Keywords:

• emotional contagion
• emotional exhaustion
• role overload
• turnover intention
• job demands-resources model

Data Sharing Statement

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/ or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Chongqing Medical University (record number: 2020019).

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all respondents for their participation.

Author Contributions

All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

Authors received support from the Program for Youth Innovation in Future Medicine, Chongqing Medical University (Grant No. W0079).