The mediating role of coping style between nurses’ workplace bullying and professional quality of life

Abstract

Abstract Aims This study aimed to explore the relationship between workplace bullying among nurses and their professional quality of life, as well as the mediating role of coping styles between the two factors. Background In China, the overall status of nurses' professional quality of life is not optimistic, and the problems of low compassion satisfaction and high empathy fatigue persist. Workplace bullying, which is a serious worldwide problem, can hurt the mental health and professional quality of nurses. However, it has still not attracted enough attention from managers. Methods The study used a cross-sectional research design and surveyed 297 clinical nurses from two tertiary grade A hospitals in Wuhan, China. Data were collected through an online questionnaire survey from March to May 2022. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods, including Pearson correlation analysis and structural equation modeling. Results The score for nurses' workplace bullying was 38.72 ± 12.30. The scores for the three dimensions of professional quality of life were 27.56 ± 4.79 for compassion satisfaction, 30.51 ± 4.33 for burnout, and 28.47 ± 4.65 for secondary trauma stress. The scores for positive coping style and negative coping style were 34.59 ± 5.72 and 20.34 ± 5.08 points, respectively. Workplace bullying has negative and direct effects on compassion satisfaction, and positive and direct effects on burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Coping styles mediate the relationship between workplace bullying and compassion satisfaction, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. Conclusion Workplace bullying hurts nurses' professional quality of life, while coping style plays an intermediary role between workplace bullying and professional quality of life. Nursing managers can improve nurses' professional quality of life by reducing workplace bullying and enhancing positive responses. Implications for nursing management: Nursing managers need to apply management wisdom and methods to promote nurses maintaining a positive work state, and to reduce the existence and harm of workplace bullying, in order to improve the professional quality of life for nurses.