Work stress, burnout, occupational commitment, and social support among Chinese pediatric nurses: A moderated mediation model.

Purpose: Pediatric nurses are at high risk for burnout, resulting in unsatisfactory care quality. Although job resources like social support can prevent the development of burnout under work stress, the mediating role of personal resources like occupational commitment is not well studied. This study was to examine the mediating role of occupational commitment in the relationship between work stress and burnout, and test if the effect of work stress on occupational commitment varies at different levels of social support among pediatric nurses.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect data of pediatric nurses from 6 hospitals in Chengdu, China. Multiple linear regressions and bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals were used to test the proposed model.

Results: In this sample of 488 pediatric nurses, work stress was significantly associated with emotional exhaustion (β = 0.278, p < 0.001), depersonalization (β = 0.112, p < 0.001), and personal accomplishment (β = -0.047, p < 0.05). Occupational commitment partly mediated the links of work stress and emotional exhaustion (β = 0.056, 95%CI: 0.034-0.082), and depersonalization (β = 0.026, 95%CI: 0.014-0.041), and fully mediated the relationship between work stress and personal accomplishment (β = -0.059, 95%CI: -0.080 ∼ -0.039). Social support significantly moderated the relationship between work stress and occupational commitment (β = 0.007, p < 0.01).

Conclusion: Among pediatric nurses, work stress has an indirect influence on burnout through occupational commitment, and such an effect is weakened when social support is high.

Practice Implications: Nurse managers could consider developing interventions by promoting both occupational commitment and social support to prevent burnout of employees.