IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i13p7645-d845339.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Moral Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nurses’ Burnout, Work Satisfaction and Adaptive Work Performance: The Role of Autobiographical Memories of Potentially Morally Injurious Events and Basic Psychological Needs

Author

Listed:
  • Mihaela Alexandra Gherman

    (Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Str. Toma Cozma 3, 700554 Iasi, Romania)

  • Laura Arhiri

    (Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Str. Toma Cozma 3, 700554 Iasi, Romania)

  • Andrei Corneliu Holman

    (Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Str. Toma Cozma 3, 700554 Iasi, Romania)

  • Camelia Soponaru

    (Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Str. Toma Cozma 3, 700554 Iasi, Romania)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unprecedented exposure to Potentially Morally Injurious Events (PMIEs) for nurses, in which they were both moral transgressors and moral victims, with deleterious consequences on their psycho-social health and functioning. Our experimental design compared memories of PMIEs with memories of severe moral transgressions (SMTs), in which participants were only moral transgressors. Drawing from Self-Determination Theory and research on moral auto-biographical episodic memories, we assessed a conceptual model describing the impact of recalling a single PMIE or SMT event on nurses’ burnout, work satisfaction and adaptive performance. Our convenience sample comprised 614 Romanian nurses, and data was analyzed with path analysis, general linear modelling, and t -tests. Findings showed that memories of PMIEs, compared to SMTs, were more autonomy thwarting, being associated with more controlled work motivation, less moral learning, higher burnout, less work satisfaction, and adaptive performance. Burnout, moral learning, and work satisfaction were significant mediators of the relationships between PMIE and SMT recall and, respectively, adaptive performance. Our results highlight the urgency for organizational practices of moral repair for nurses after the pandemic, along with interventions meant to increase their autonomy and self-determined work motivation.

Suggested Citation

  • Mihaela Alexandra Gherman & Laura Arhiri & Andrei Corneliu Holman & Camelia Soponaru, 2022. "The Moral Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nurses’ Burnout, Work Satisfaction and Adaptive Work Performance: The Role of Autobiographical Memories of Potentially Morally Injurious Events and Basic P," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-22, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:13:p:7645-:d:845339
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/7645/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/13/7645/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Natasha Smallwood & Amy Pascoe & Leila Karimi & Karen Willis, 2021. "Moral Distress and Perceived Community Views Are Associated with Mental Health Symptoms in Frontline Health Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-15, August.
    2. Stella E. Hines & Katherine H. Chin & Danielle R. Glick & Emerson M. Wickwire, 2021. "Trends in Moral Injury, Distress, and Resilience Factors among Healthcare Workers at the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-11, January.
    3. Rosseel, Yves, 2012. "lavaan: An R Package for Structural Equation Modeling," Journal of Statistical Software, Foundation for Open Access Statistics, vol. 48(i02).
    4. Priya-Lena Riedel & Alexander Kreh & Vanessa Kulcar & Angela Lieber & Barbara Juen, 2022. "A Scoping Review of Moral Stressors, Moral Distress and Moral Injury in Healthcare Workers during COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-20, February.
    5. Giulia Lamiani & Davide Biscardi & Elaine C. Meyer & Alberto Giannini & Elena Vegni, 2021. "Moral Distress Trajectories of Physicians 1 Year after the COVID-19 Outbreak: A Grounded Theory Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(24), pages 1-10, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mihaela Alexandra Gherman & Laura Arhiri & Andrei Corneliu Holman & Camelia Soponaru, 2022. "Protective Factors against Morally Injurious Memories from the COVID-19 Pandemic on Nurses’ Occupational Wellbeing: A Cross-Sectional Experimental Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-42, September.
    2. Mihaela Alexandra Gherman & Laura Arhiri & Andrei Corneliu Holman & Camelia Soponaru, 2022. "Injurious Memories from the COVID-19 Frontline: The Impact of Episodic Memories of Self- and Other-Potentially Morally Injurious Events on Romanian Nurses’ Burnout, Turnover Intentions and Basic Need ," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-25, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniela Lemmo & Roberta Vitale & Carmela Girardi & Roberta Salsano & Ersilia Auriemma, 2022. "Moral Distress Events and Emotional Trajectories in Nursing Narratives during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-12, July.
    2. Esther Alonso-Prieto & Holly Longstaff & Agnes Black & Alice K. Virani, 2022. "COVID-19 Outbreak: Understanding Moral-Distress Experiences Faced by Healthcare Workers in British Columbia, Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-14, August.
    3. Priya-Lena Riedel & Alexander Kreh & Vanessa Kulcar & Angela Lieber & Barbara Juen, 2022. "A Scoping Review of Moral Stressors, Moral Distress and Moral Injury in Healthcare Workers during COVID-19," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-20, February.
    4. Dominik Hinzmann & Katharina Schütte-Nütgen & Arndt Büssing & Olaf Boenisch & Hans-Jörg Busch & Christoph Dodt & Patrick Friederich & Matthias Kochanek & Guido Michels & Eckhard Frick, 2022. "Critical Care Providers’ Moral Distress: Frequency, Burden, and Potential Resources," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Davis Cooper-Bribiesca & Dulce María Rascón-Martínez & José Adan Miguel-Puga & María Karen Juárez-Carreón & Luis Alejandro Sánchez-Hurtado & Tania Colin-Martinez & Juan Carlos Anda-Garay & Eliseo Espi, 2023. "Physicians’ Distress Related to Moral Issues and Mental Health In-Between Two Late Waves of COVID-19 Contagions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-19, February.
    6. Jonathan Tran & Karen Willis & Margaret Kay & Kathryn Hutt & Natasha Smallwood, 2022. "The Workplace and Psychosocial Experiences of Australian Senior Doctors during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-16, March.
    7. Andrea M. D’Alessandro-Lowe & Mauda Karram & Kim Ritchie & Andrea Brown & Heather Millman & Emily Sullo & Yuanxin Xue & Mina Pichtikova & Hugo Schielke & Ann Malain & Charlene O’Connor & Ruth Lanius &, 2023. "Coping, Supports and Moral Injury: Spiritual Well-Being and Organizational Support Are Associated with Reduced Moral Injury in Canadian Healthcare Providers during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(19), pages 1-17, September.
    8. Sonia Nawrocka & Hans De Witte & Margherita Pasini & Margherita Brondino, 2023. "A Person-Centered Approach to Job Insecurity: Is There a Reciprocal Relationship between the Quantitative and Qualitative Dimensions of Job Insecurity?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(7), pages 1-27, March.
    9. Md. Mominur Rahman & Bilkis Akhter, 2021. "The impact of investment in human capital on bank performance: evidence from Bangladesh," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    10. Masashi Soga & Kevin J. Gaston & Yuichi Yamaura & Kiyo Kurisu & Keisuke Hanaki, 2016. "Both Direct and Vicarious Experiences of Nature Affect Children’s Willingness to Conserve Biodiversity," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-12, May.
    11. César Merino-Soto & Gina Chávez-Ventura & Verónica López-Fernández & Guillermo M. Chans & Filiberto Toledano-Toledano, 2022. "Learning Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-L): Psychometric and Measurement Invariance Evidence in Peruvian Undergraduate Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-17, September.
    12. Nathaniel Oliver Iotti & Damiano Menin & Tomas Jungert, 2022. "Early Adolescents’ Motivations to Defend Victims of Cyberbullying," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-9, July.
    13. Peter Tavel & Bibiana Jozefiakova & Peter Telicak & Jana Furstova & Michal Puza & Natalia Kascakova, 2022. "Psychometric Analysis of the Shortened Version of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale on the Slovak Population (SWBS-Sk)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-12, January.
    14. Allen, Jaime & Eboli, Laura & Forciniti, Carmen & Mazzulla, Gabriella & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2019. "The role of critical incidents and involvement in transit satisfaction and loyalty," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 57-69.
    15. Andreea-Ionela Puiu & Anca Monica Ardeleanu & Camelia Cojocaru & Anca Bratu, 2021. "Exploring the Effect of Status Quo, Innovativeness, and Involvement Tendencies on Luxury Fashion Innovations: The Mediation Role of Status Consumption," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(9), pages 1-18, May.
    16. Andres Trujillo-Barrera & Joost M. E. Pennings & Dianne Hofenk, 2016. "Understanding producers' motives for adopting sustainable practices: the role of expected rewards, risk perception and risk tolerance," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 43(3), pages 359-382.
    17. Daria J. Kuss & Lydia Harkin & Eiman Kanjo & Joel Billieux, 2018. "Problematic Smartphone Use: Investigating Contemporary Experiences Using a Convergent Design," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, January.
    18. Allen, Jaime & Muñoz, Juan Carlos & Ortúzar, Juan de Dios, 2019. "On evasion behaviour in public transport: Dissatisfaction or contagion?," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 626-651.
    19. Cloarec, Julien, 2022. "Privacy controls as an information source to reduce data poisoning in artificial intelligence-powered personalization," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 144-153.
    20. Merkle, Edgar C. & Steyvers, Mark & Mellers, Barbara & Tetlock, Philip E., 2017. "A neglected dimension of good forecasting judgment: The questions we choose also matter," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 817-832.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:13:p:7645-:d:845339. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.