Patient-centred care and nurses' health: the role of nurses' caring orientation.
OBJECTIVE
This paper is a report of a study of the moderating effect of caring orientation on the relationship of patient-centred care to nurses' physical and mental health.


BACKGROUND
Providing effective patient-centred care is well-accepted as an important contributor to a host of patients' health outcomes. Based on two theoretical perspectives - person-environment fit and emotional labour - I suggest that providing patient-centred care per se does not potentially harm nurses' health; the cause is the fit (or non-fit) of a nurse's caring orientation and the displayed patient-centred care behaviours.


METHODS
Data were collected in 2007 with a random sample of 325 registered nurses working in the Israeli public healthcare sector in in-patient units. Caring orientation, health and control variables were measured via validated questionnaires. Patient-centred care behaviours were assessed by structured observations.


RESULTS
The mental health of nurses who exhibited high caring orientation combined with high patient-centred care, or that of nurses who exhibited low caring orientation combined with low patient-centred care, was statistically significantly higher in comparison with the mental health of nurses who exhibited incongruent (low/high or high/low) caring orientation and patient-centred care behaviours. For nurses' physical health, the findings revealed that providing patient-centred care was associated with worsened health, and possessing a caring orientation was associated with better health.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings support the hypotheses that were derived from person-environment fit and emotional labour only with regard to mental health. Separate theory needs to be developed on how to maintain nurses' physical health.
Drach-Zahavy
Anat
A
Department of Nursing, University of Haifa, Israel. anatdz@research.haifa.ac.il
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology*; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000523:psychology*; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D055815:Young Adult