Job satisfaction as a correlate of empathic behaviour among health care providers towards their patients

Abstract

This study examined the influence of job satisfaction on empathic behaviour of health care workers towards their patients. Four research questions and five hypotheses guided the study. The study is an ex-post facto research design that adopted the correlation method. A sample size of 1,200 health care workers was selected through a multi-stage sampling method. The method of data collection is a questionnaire, whose psychometric properties were adjudged to be adequate. A total of 1,114 copies were questionnaire were returned after administration and was used for data analysis. The analysis was done using Pearson’s correlation and coefficient of determination for the research questions as well as regression and path analysis for the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha level. The result showed that job satisfaction is positively associated with emphatic behaviour of health care workers towards their patients. The study further revealed that the three components of job satisfaction; affective, cognitive and behavioural components were positively associated with emphatic behaviour and that gender does not moderate the influence of the three components of job satisfaction on empathic behaviour of health care workers towards their patients. Based on the findings, recommendations were made.