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. 2019 Nov;75(11):2786-2796.
doi: 10.1111/jan.14153. Epub 2019 Aug 8.

The association between alexithymia, emotional intelligence and burnout among nursing assistants working in nursing home settings: A cross-sectional study

Erkuden Aldaz  1 , Aitor Aritzeta  2 , Nerea Galdona  1
Affiliations

The association between alexithymia, emotional intelligence and burnout among nursing assistants working in nursing home settings: A cross-sectional study

Erkuden Aldaz et al. J Adv Nurs. 2019 Nov.

Abstract
in English, Chinese

Aims: To determine the explanatory power of alexithymia and emotional intelligence over burnout and to examine their combined explanatory capacity over burnout in the context of older adult care.

Design: Cross-sectional. All participants voluntarily and anonymously completed a questionnaire survey. They were all blind to the aim of the study.

Methods: One hundred and fifty-nine nursing assistants recruited during 2014 took part in the study. They belong to 10 nursing homes in the north of Spain. Sociodemographic and work-related information was collected, and measures of burnout, alexithymia and emotional intelligence were administered. Data were examined by means of regression analyses.

Results: The analysis showed that alexithymia made a moderate contribution to the depersonalization and personal accomplishment dimensions of burnout, controlling for the influence of work characteristics. Emotional intelligence did not have incremental validity over alexithymia in explaining burnout.

Conclusion: Alexithymia, rather than emotional intelligence, is a stronger explanatory variable for burnout among nursing assistants working in nursing homes.

Impact: Alexithymia and emotional intelligence are related to burnout and help to explain why, in the same context, each worker is affected differently by chronic stress at work. However, their combined explanatory capacity in nursing assistants working with older people remains underexplored. In our sample, alexithymia explains burnout better than emotional intelligence, a finding that was both unexpected and theoretically relevant. Researchers should take this into account when studying personal resources to prevent and manage burnout among nursing assistants, as alexithymia, rather that emotional intelligence, could play an important role once workers are burned out. Training nursing assistants to identify and describe emotions should be considered as part of their training programmes and/or in nursing homes as an institutional strategy to prevent burnout and to improve the quality of older adult care.

目的: 确认述情障碍和情商对倦怠的解释力,并在老年人护理背景下检验两者对倦怠的结合解释力。 设计: 横断面。所有参与者自愿并匿名完成了问卷调查。他们都不清楚此项研究的目的。 方法: 2014年招募的159名护理助理参与了此项研究。他们来自西班牙北部的10所疗养院。我们收集了社会人口信息和与工作相关的信息,并对倦怠、述情障碍以及情商进行测量。我们采用了回归分析法对数据进行检验。 结果: 分析表明,述情障碍一定程度上导致了倦怠的人格解体和个人成就感维度,并控制了工作特性的影响。情商在解释倦怠时并没有比述情障碍表现出更多有效性。 结论: 对于在疗养原工作的护理助理,述情障碍比情商更能解释倦怠。 影响: 述情障碍与倦怠有关,这就有助于解释为什么在同样背景下,每个员工在工作中所受到的长期压力的影响不尽相同。但这两者对于护理老年人的护士助理结合解释力仍有待发掘。在我们的样本中,相比于情商,述情障碍更好地解释了倦怠,这一发现出人意料,但理论上又是相关联的。在研究个人资源以预防和管理护理助理的倦怠时应该考虑到这一点,因为述情障碍,而非情商,更能在员工倦怠时发挥重要作用。对护士助理识别和描述情绪进行培训应作为培训计划的一部分,或是应该疗养院中,作为一种机构策略以防止倦怠并提高老年人护理质量。.

Keywords: alexithymia; burnout; cross-sectional study; emotional intelligence; incremental validity; nursing assistant; older adult care.

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